Information sharing, either online or face-to-face, shapes what information is available and impactful in modern societies. Understanding why people share can help us to better predict when sharing occurs and what the impact of a particular message might be in the population. In prior work, we have shown that neural responses to newspaper articles in […]

How do we make decisions within complex information environments that include an abundance of contradictory information relevant to the decision at hand? For instance, while standing at the bar choosing between vodka and a mocktail, how do we make sense of and integrate the competing messages sent by party-loving friends, public health authorities, alcohol brands, […]

Many adolescents and young adults consume a lot of alcohol, which is related to serious negative consequences for both youth and society. A recent development is that young people nowadays place a lot of posts about this alcohol use on Social Networking Sites (SNS), such as Facebook and Instagram. Alarmingly, most of these messages show […]

This PhD project focuses on gaining a better understanding of aspects that determine the effectiveness of interpersonal communication about alcohol and binge drinking. The overarching goal is to explore how interpersonal communication can be used to improve anti-alcohol and binge drinking interventions targeted at late adolescents (17-19 years old). We examine aspects such as: conversational […]

Extant research shows that interpersonal communication between people has more influence than professional health communication. This project aims at increasing insight into how people communicate about health-related behaviors and how this influences health behavior. In addition, interpersonal communication can both strengthen and weaken the effects of professional health communication (e.g., campaigns). More knowledge on the […]