At this year’s Communication Horizons Conference (May 16‑18, UC Davis), members of the Cognitive Communication Science Lab will present a portfolio of six studies that illuminate how media—from news headlines to social platforms—shape, and are shaped by, our health and social well‑being. The team’s contributions span neuroscience, computational modeling, technological innovation, and policy‑relevant theory, all aligned with the conference theme “Media, Health, and Society: Exploring Well‑Being Across Lifespans and Diverse Communities.”

Students in the lab are tackling some of the most pressing questions at the intersection of media and well‑being.

Richard Huskey

Mapping the Brain’s Pull toward Negative News

Graduate student Rachael Kee combines functional MRI with hierarchical drift‑diffusion modeling to reveal that people accumulate evidence more quickly for negative, high‑arousal economic headlines, recruiting classic value‑computing regions such as the striatum. The work reframes the “negativity bias” as a value‑based decision process rather than a reflexive attentional response.

Why We Click Bad News—at Scale

In a nationally representative behavioral study, graduate student Ziyu Zhao shows that preferential evidence accumulation for negative, high‑arousal news is robust, and moderated by political ideology and age. The modeling bridges stimulus‑driven attention with deliberate news selection, clarifying the mechanics behind society’s appetite for negativity.

Mental Health Signals in Entertainment Choice

Undergraduate researcher Valerie Klein, working with lab alumnus Dr. Xuanjun (Jason) Gong, finds that loneliness amplifies viewers’ preference for negatively valenced entertainment, while depression and anxiety drive people toward calmer content. Using drift‑diffusion models linked to standardized mental‑health scales, the study identifies actionable targets for digital interventions that support emotional regulation.

An App that Fuses Sleep, Screen Time, and Real‑Time Mood

In a second presentation, Rachael Kee unveils an open‑source iOS tool that automatically streams Apple Health sleep metrics, passive device data, and Qualtrics experience‑sampling responses into a secure Firebase backend. The platform slashes participant burden, scales to thousands of users, and unlocks fine‑grained analyses of how night‑time media habits disrupt—or restore—sleep.

“Digital Agronomy”: Designing Platforms that Cultivate Youth Well‑Being

Graduate student Allyson Snyder introduces a new theoretical framework that merges the Personal Social Media Ecosystem and Differential Susceptibility models. The approach shifts the policy conversation from banning content to engineering platform mechanics—notifications, feed order, and messaging gateways—that nurture adolescents’ developmental needs while limiting algorithmic “weeds.”

Storytelling that Moves Donors in Medical Crowdfunding

Returning to persuasive communication, Ziyu Zhao analyzes lung‑cancer GoFundMe campaigns started by children for their mothers. Empathy‑centric narratives and cover images showing larger social circles boost donation ratios, whereas excessively negative or purely rational appeals backfire—insights that can guide families seeking financial support during medical crises.

A Cohesive Vision: Media, Minds, and Better Outcomes

Together, these studies trace a through‑line from the micro-level of neural evidence accumulation to the macro‑level design choices of digital platforms. They demonstrate that emotional state, developmental stage, and interface architecture jointly steer our media diets—and, by extension, our sleep, mental health, political trust, and even medical generosity.

“Students in the lab are tackling some of the most pressing questions at the intersection of media and well‑being,” said Prof. Huskey. “Their work not only advances theory but also points to concrete solutions—whether that’s re‑thinking news algorithms, improving our sleep, or designing social platforms that help young people thrive.”

Presentations are scheduled across the three‑day conference; abstracts are available in the official program.