Yidi Wang is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She studies with a focus on health and environmental communication. She studies three interconnected lines of research: 1) identifying persuasive message features that produce intended or counterproductive effects; 2) theorizing how sociocultural factors shape health communication; 3) advancing methodological approaches in communication research. She has published in leading journals, including Health Communication, Environmental Communication, Risk Analysis, and the Journal of Media Psychology. She has received the Top Student Paper and the Graduate Student Mentorship Award. As lab manager, Yidi has served as a research fellow on multiple federally funded projects (NIH K01, R01, R21), contributing to both scientific advancement and the mentorship of emerging scholars.
Outside of academia, she enjoys starting her mornings with coffee and latte art, and turning to drawing as a way to recharge and spark creativity.
Article Featuring: Yidi Wang Won Top Student Paper & Graduate Student Mentorship Award at NCA 🏆
Publications:
15. Zhang, HT., Tao, R., Wang, Y., Liu, J., Wu, S. & Yang, S. (2026). Identifying persuasive visual features within tobacco pictorial warnings: Effects on anticipated loss of face, gifting, and refrain intentions among Chinese men who smoke. Journal of Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2026.2659918
14. Yang, S., Sun, L., Tao, R., Yoo, J. S., Duan, Z., Sun, Y., Wang, Y., & Liu, J. (2026). Can algorithms help efficiently identify interpretable and persuasive message features? An agnostic causal machine learning approach. Health Communication.
13. Wang, Y., Xu, Y., Wu, S. (2025). “Sharing is caring even when it’s wrong”: The factors influencing health misinformation sharing and relational correction among Chinese older adults from a cultural perspective. Health Communication, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2025.2457188
12. Liu, J., Wang, Y., Fabbricatore, J., Norton, E., Markey, C., McMains, J.T., Worsdale, A., Ye, T., Shi, Z., & Sweet, L.H. (2025). Neural predictors of vaping: Covert emotional engagement vs. reactance to overt emotional appeals in anti-vaping message processing. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2025.108194
11. Liu, J., Wang, Y., Gay. J. L. (2025). Promising campaign themes to promote active pro-environmental behaviors among U.S. coastal residents. Environmental Communication, 19(4),663-687. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2024.2441948
10. Liu, J., & Wang, Y. (in press). The use of eye-tracking methods in communication research: A brief overview and some suggestions for future directions. In L. Shen (Ed.), Handbook of Quantitative Research Methods in Communication Science. De Gruyter.
9. Zhang, T. H., Cao, X., Wang, Y., Liu, J., Wu, S., & Yang, S. (2025). Care-based moral appeals in pictorial tobacco control messages: A cross-cultural comparison of American and Chinese smokers using real-world campaign messages. Journal of Media Psychology, 37(6), 344-355. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000495
8. Wicke, R., Ratcliff, C., Fleerackers, A., Wang, Y., King, A., & Jensen, JD. (2025). Preprints in COVID-19 news coverage: Comparing student and general population perceptions of preliminary science about booster vaccination. Risk Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.70071
7. Wang, Y., Yang, X. & Liu, J. (2024). Navigating sensitive conversations: Patient-centered communication and politeness markers in Chinese online medical consultations. Healthcare,12(23), 2465. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232465
6. Liu, J., Shi, Z., Fabbricatore, J. L., McMains, J. T., Worsdale, A., Jones, E. C., Wang, Y., & Sweet, L. H. (2024). Vaping and smoking cue reactivity in young adult non-smoking electronic cigarette users: A functional neuroimaging study. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 27(4), 762-766. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.13.575524
5. Tao, R., Wang, X., Wang, Y., Yao, H., Wu. S., Liu, J., Yang, S. (2023). Emotions and norms: How normative perceptions moderate the persuasive impacts of discrete emotional appeals within pictorial tobacco control messages in China. Health Communication, 39(12), 2561-2576. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2277036
4. Wu, S., Wang, Y., Du, L. (2021). Frontiers of overseas health communication (2016–2020): Issues, methods, and implications. Annual Report on the Overseas Humanities and Social Sciences, 2020. Wuhan University Press.
3. Wang, Y. (2020). Why do older Chinese adults share health (mis)information? A study based on social support theory. Proceedings of Humanity and Media: “Healthy China” & Health Communication International Conference (MHM). http://cnki.sris.com.tw/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?filename=XWCB202011001038&dbcode=IPFD&dbname=IPFD2020
2. Wu, S., Wang, Y., Zheng, X. (2019). Game of source credibility: Source and source narrative of health misinformation and corrective information. Global Media Journal, 6(3), 73-91. (Reported by Chinese online media, Huxiu.com).
1. Wang, Y. (2019). The use and education of new media among Chinese urban elderly. Proceedings of 2019 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (IJCIME), 294-299. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCIME49369.2019.00066