Substance Use Prevention

Shi, Z., Wang, A.-L., Liu, J., Audrain-McGovern, J., Lynch, K. G., Loughead, J., & Langleben, D. D. (2025). Delayed effects of cigarette graphic warning labels on smoking behavior. American Journal of Health Promotion. DOI: 10.1177/08901171251361791

Shi, R., Feldman, R., Liu, J., & Clark, P. I. (2024). Correcting misperceptions about very low nicotine cigarettes for cigarette-only smokers, dual/poly smokers, other tobacco users, and non-tobacco users. Preventive Medicine Reports, 46, 102856. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102856

Yang, S., Cotter, L. M., Lu, L., Kriss, L.A., Minich, M., Liu, J., Silver, L., Cascio, C.N. (2024). Countering online marketing and user endorsements with enhanced cannabis warning labels: An online experiment among at-risk youth and young adults. Preventive Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.107877

Kim, S. J., Minich, M., Yang, S., Tveleneva, A., Liu, J., Padon, A., Silver, L. (2022). Textual and pictorial enhancement of cannabis warning labels: An online experiment among at-risk U.S. young adults. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109520

Shi, R., Feldman, R. H., Liu, J, & Clark, P. I. (2020). The dilemma of correcting nicotine misperceptions: Nicotine replacement therapy versus electronic cigarettes. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1800288

Yang, B., Liu, J., & Popova, L. (2018). Targeted versus nontargeted communication about electronic nicotine delivery systems in three smoker groups. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(10). DOI:10.3390/ijerph15102071

Yang, Q., Liu, J., Lochbuehler, K., & Hornik, R. (2017). Does seeking e-cigarette information lead to vaping? Evidence from a national longitudinal survey of youth and young adults. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1407229

Brennan, E., Gibson, L., Kybert-Momjian, A., Liu, J., & Hornik, R. (2017). Promising themes for antismoking campaigns targeting youth and young adults. Tobacco Regulatory Science, 3(1), 29–46. DOI:10.18001/TRS.3.1.4

Liu, J., Jones, C., Wilson, K., Durantini, M. R., Livingood, W., & Albarracín, D. (2014). Motivational barriers to retention of at-risk young adults in HIV-prevention interventions: Perceived pressure and efficacy. AIDS Care, 26(10), 1242–1248. DOI: 10.1080/09540121.2014.896450

Kim, M. and Liu, J. (2023). Tobacco Control. In The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication (eds E. Y. Ho, C. L. Bylund, J. C. M. van Weert, I. Basnyat, N. Bol and M. Dean). DOI: 10.1002/9781119678816.iehc0986

Social Influence

Liu, J., Zhao, S., Chen, X., Falk, E., & Albarracín, D. (2017). The influence of peer behavior as a function of social cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation. Psychological Bulletin, 143(10):1082–1115. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000113

Liu, J., Shi, R., & Hornik, R. (2024). Modification mechanisms of descriptive norm perceptions toward vaping: The role of behavior prevalence and group size in an online setting. Health Communication, 1–13. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2024.2344883

Liu, J., & Shi, R. (2018). How do online comments affect perceived descriptive norms of e-cigarette use? The role of quasi-statistical sense, valence perceptions, and exposure dosage. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. DOI:10.1093/jcmc/zmy021

Siegel, L., Liu, J., Gibson, L., & Hornik, R. (2022). Not all norm information is the same: Effects of normative content in the media on young people’s perceptions of e-cigarette and tobacco use norms. Communication Research, 00936502211073290. DOI: 10.1177/00936502211073290.

Lee, S. J., & Liu, J. (2021). Leveraging dynamic norm messages to promote counter-normative behaviors: The moderating role of current and future injunctive norms, attitude and self-efficacy. Health Communication, 38(6), 1071–1079. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1991638

Duong, H. T., & Liu, J. (2018). Vaping in the news: The influence of news exposure on perceived e-cigarette use norms. American Journal of Health Education, 50(1), 25–39. DOI:10.1080/19325037.2018.1548315

Wu, W., Liu, J., Fleming, K., & Lu, X. (2025). The influence of motivation and engagement on knowledge and behavioral intentions: Information learning on social media during early COVID-19 outbreak in China. Mass Communication and Society, 1–20. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2025.2494759.   

Tao, R., Wang, X., Wang, Y, Yao, H, Wu, S., Liu, J., & Yang, S. (2023). Emotional appeals and norms: How normative perceptions moderate the persuasive impacts of discrete emotional appeals within tobacco pictorial warnings in China. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2277036

Chon, M.-G., Xu, L., Liu, J., Kim, J-N., & Kim, J. (2022). From mind to mouth: Understanding active publics in China and their communicative behaviors on GM foods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20010578

Tveleneva, A., Kim, S. J., Minich, M., Liu, J., Padon, A., Silver, L., & Yang, S. (2022). Yet again conversations matter: The importance of interpersonal discussions, educational campaigns, and advertising on cannabis-related risk perceptions, attitudes, and intentions among at-risk young adults. Journal of Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2022.2153291

Chon, M.-G., Kim, J., Xu, L., & Liu, J. (2022). Understanding active communicators on the food safety issue: Conspiratorial thinking, organizational trust, and communicative actions of publics in China. American Behavioral Scientist. DOI: 10.1177/00027642221118284

Duong, H. T., & Liu, J. (2021). When others’ reactions to news media messages are visible: The influence of news user comments on presumed media influence. Southern Communication Journal, 86(3), 215–230. DOI:10.1080/1041794X.2021.1900354

Xu, L., Liu, J., Kim, J., & Chon, M.-G. (2021). Are Chinese netizens willing to speak out? The spiral of silence in public reactions to controversial food safety issues on social media. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(24), 13114. DOI:/10.3390/ijerph182413114.

Shi, R., Liu, J., & Cappella, J. N. (2021). Influence of online comments on smokers’ E-cigarette attitude: Opinion climate, review fraud, and resistance to persuasion. Psychology & Health, 1–19. DOI:10.1080/08870446.2021.1893320

Liu, J., Lochbuehler, K., Yang, Q., Gibson, L. A., & Hornik, R. C. (2020). Breadth of media scanning leads to vaping among youth and young adults: Evidence of direct and indirect pathways from a national longitudinal survey. Journal of Health Communication, 25(2), 91–104. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2019.1709925

Message Effects

Liu, J., Wang, Y., & Gay, J. L. (2025). Promising campaign themes to promote active pro-environmental behaviors among U.S. coastal residents. Environmental Communication, 1–25. DOI:10.1080/17524032.2024.2441948.

So, J., & Liu, J. (2023). The role of audience favorability in processing (un)familiar messages: A heuristic-systematic model perspective. Human Communication Research, 49(4):383-395. DOI: 10.1093/hcr/hqad024

Zhang, T., Cao, X., Wang, Y., Liu, J., Wu, S., & Yang, S. (in press). 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.

Wang, Y., Yang, X., & Liu, J. (2024). Navigating sensitive conversations: Patient-centered communication and politeness markers in Chinese online medical consultations. Healthcare, 12(23), Article 23. DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12232465

Kim, J., Chon, M-G., Xu, L., & Liu, J. (2024). The effects of trust, distrust, and motivation on information behaviors: The cases of GM food and food additives in China. Sage Open. DOI: 10.1177/21582440241248917

Worsdale, A., & Liu, J. (2023). Narrative messages and the use of emotional appeals on endometriosis screening intention: The mediating role of positive affect. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(13):6209. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20136209

Jiang, S., & Liu, J. (2020). Examining the relationship between Internet health information seeking and patient-centered communication in China: Taking into account self-efficacy in medical decision-making. Chinese Journal of Communication. DOI: 10.1080/17544750.2020.1769700

Yang, B., Liu, J., & Popova, L. (2019). Feeling hopeful motivates change: Emotional responses to messages communicating comparative risk of electronic cigarettes and combusted cigarettes. Health Education and Behavior. DOI: 10.1177/1090198118825236

Liu, J., & Hornik, R. (2016). Measuring exposure opportunities: Using exogenous measures in assessing effects of media exposure on smoking outcomes. Communication Methods and Measures, 10(2–3), 115–134. DOI: 10.1080/19312458.2016.1150442

Lee, S. J., Brennan, E., Gibson, L. A., Tan, A. S. L., Kybert-Momjian, A., Liu, J., & Hornik, R. (2016). Predictive validity of an empirical approach for selecting promising message topics: A randomized-controlled study. Journal of Communication, 66(3), 433–453. DOI: 10.1111/jcom.12227

Psychophysiological Methods

Liu, J., So, J., & Pei, R. (2025). Diminished valuation in the brain: How repeated exposure reduces health message engagement. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 59(1), kaaf037. DOI:10.1093/abm/kaaf037.

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.

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, ntae257, DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntae257

Liu, J., Phua, J., Krugman, D., Xu, L., Nowak, G., & Popova, L. (2020). Do young adults attend to health warnings in the first IQOS advertisement in the U.S.? An eye-tracking approach. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa243

Liu, J., O’Donnell, M., & Falk, E. (2020). Deliberation and valence as dissociable components of counterarguing among smokers: Evidence from neuroimaging and quantitative linguistic analysis. Health Communication. 36(6), 752-763. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1712521

Computational Methods

Lu, L., Kriss, L., Kwon, H., Wang, W., Cotter, L., Minich, M., Liu, J., Cascio, C., & Yang, S. (accepted). Cannabis warning labels, sensory marketing, and electronic word-of-mouth: AI-facilitated textual analysis of a randomized experiment among youth and young adults. International Journal of Advertising.

Hornik, R., Binns, S., Emery, S., Epstein, V. M., Jeong, M., Kim, K., Kim, Y., Kranzler, E. C., Jesch, E., Lee, S. J., Levin, A. V., Liu, J., O’Donnell, M. B., Siegel, L., Tran, H., Williams, S., Yang, Q., & Gibson, L. A. (2022). The effects of tobacco coverage in the public communication environment on young people’s decisions to smoke combustible cigarettes. Journal of Communication, jqab052. DOI:10.1093/joc/jqab052

Murashka, V., Liu, J., & Peng, Y. (2020). Fitspiration on Instagram: Identifying topic clusters in user comments to posts with objectification features. Health Communication, 36(12), 1537–1548. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1773702

Liu, J., Siegel, L., Gibson, L. A., Kim, Y., Binns, S., Emery, S., Hornik, R. C. (2019). Toward an aggregate, implicit, and dynamic model of norm formation: Capturing large-scale media representations of dynamic descriptive norms through automated and crowdsourced content analysis. Journal of Communication, 69(6), 563–588. DOI: 10.1093/joc/jqz033

Lee, S. J., Liu, J., Gibson, L. A., & Hornik, R. C. (2019). Rating the valence of media content about electronic cigarettes using crowdsourcing: Testing rater instructions and estimating the optimal number of raters. Health Communication, 1–11. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1700882

Gibson, L.A., Siegel, L., Kranzler, E., Volinsky, A., O’Donnell, M.B., Williams, S., Yang, Q., Kim, Y., Binns, S., Tran, H., Maidel Epstein, V., Leffel, T., Jeong, M., Liu, J., Lee, S. J., Emery, S., & Hornik, R.C. (2019). Combining crowd-sourcing and automated content methods to improve estimates of overall media coverage: Theme mentions in e-cigarette and other tobacco coverage. Journal of Health Communication, 24(12), 889–899. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2019.1682724

Sangalang, A., Volinsky, A.C., Liu, J., Yang, Q., Lee, S., Gibson, L.A., & Hornik, R.C. (2019). Identifying potential campaign themes to prevent youth initiation of e-cigarettes. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 56(5), S65–S75. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.07.039

Mai, B., Liu, J., & González-Bailón, S. (2015). Network effects in the academic market: Mechanisms for hiring and placing PhDs in communication (2007–2014). Journal of Communication, 65(3), 558–583. DOI: 10.1111/jcom.12158