Xiaoquan Zhao

Xiaoquan Zhao

Xiaoquan Zhao

Professor

Health communication, persuasion, media effects, information seeking, tobacco prevention, and climate change communication

Xiaoquan Zhao received his Ph.D. (2005) from the Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on health message design and effects, evaluation of public communication campaigns, news effects on health and risk perceptions, health information seeking, and the role of the self in health behavior and persuasive communication. The substantive topics of his work include tobacco control, substance use prevention, cancer risk education, medical adherence, and climate change. Dr. Zhao has published widely in journals of communication and public health, including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Research, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, and Social Science & Medicine. His work has received support from both public and private funding sources. In 2013-2014, he worked as a Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellow at the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. Since 2014, he has served as subject matter expert and scientific adviser to the Division of Research and Evaluation in the Office of Health Communication and Education at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, providing wide-ranging research support for FDA’s ongoing national tobacco education campaigns. Dr. Zhao is currently a senior editor for Health Communication.

Dr. Zhao joined GMU in fall 2005. The courses he offers include health communication, persuasion, health campaigns, and research methods.

Current Research

 

 

Selected Publications

Zhao, X., Malterud, A., Curry, L, Malo, V., MacMonegle, A., Nonnemaker, J., & Allen, J. (2024). Promising themes for electronic cigarette prevention campaigns for youth and young adults. Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Zhao, X., Hingle, A., Shaw, C. C., Murphy, A., Riddick, B. R., Mhonde, R. R. D., Taylor, B. G., Lamuda, P. A., Pollack, H. A., Schneider, J. A., & Taxman, F. S. (2024). Endorsement of COVID-19 misinformation among criminal legal involved individuals in the United States: Prevalence and relationship with information sources. PLOS ONE, 19(1), e0296752. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296752

Zhao, X., Kadono, M., Kranzler, E. C., Pavisic, I., Miles, S., Maher, M., Strausser, L., Cai, X., & Hoffman, L. (2024). Message fatigue and COVID-19 vaccine booster uptake in the United States. Journal of Health Communication, 29(1), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2023.2282036

Zhao, X., Horoszko, U. A., Murphy, A., Taylor, B. J., Lamuda, P. A., Pollack, H. A., Schneider, J., & Taxman, F. S. (2023). Openness to change among COVID misinformation endorsers: Association with social demographic characteristics and information source usage. Social Science & Medicine, 335, 116233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116233

Zhao, X., Delahanty, J. C., Duke, J. C., MacMonegle, A. J., Smith, A. A., Allen, J. A., & Nonnemaker, J. (2022). Perceived message effectiveness and campaign-targeted beliefs: Evidence of reciprocal effects in youth tobacco prevention. Health Communication, 37(3), 356–365. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1839202

Zhao, X., Peterson, E. B., Oh, K. M., & Cai, X. (2019). Using graphic text-messaging to promote smoking cessation among first-generation Chinese and Korean male immigrants. Health Education Research, 34(3), 332-344. Doi:10.1093/her/cyz006

Zhao, X., Roditis, M. L., & Alexander, T. N. (2019). Fear and humor appeals in “The Real Cost” campaign: Evidence of potential effectiveness in message pretesting. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 56(2, Supplement 1), S31–S39. 

Zhao, X., & Peterson, E. B. (2017). Effects of temporal framing on response to antismoking messages: The mediating role of perceived relevance. Journal of Health Communication, 22(1), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2016.1250844

Zhao, X., Alexander, T. N., Hoffman, L., Jones, C., Delahanty, J., Walker, M., … Talbert, E. (2016). Youth receptivity to FDA’s The Real Cost Tobacco Prevention Campaign: Evidence from message pretesting. Journal of Health Communication, 21(11), 1153–1160. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2016.1233307

Zhao, X., & Cai, X. (2016). The association between exposure to “Tips” and smoking-related outcomes among adolescents in the United States. Health Education Research, 31(5), 614–623. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyw037

Zhao, X., Rolfe-Redding, J., & Kotcher, J. (2016). Partisan differences in the relationship between newspaper coverage and concern over global warming. Public Understanding of Science, 25, 543-559. Doi: 10.1177/0963662514558992

Zhao, X., Mao, Q., Kreps, G, Yu, G., Li, Y., Chou, W-Y., Persoskie, A., Nie, X, Xu, Z., Song, M., & Kim, P. (2015). Cancer information seekers in China: A preliminary profile. Journal of Health Communication, 20(5), 616–626. http://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2015.1012244

Zhao, X., Peterson, E., Kim, W., & Rolfe-Redding, J. (2014). Effects of self-affirmation on daily vs. occasional smokers’ responses to graphic warning labels. Communication Research, 41(8), 1137-1158. doi: 10.1177/0093650212465433

Zhao, X., Nan, X., Yang, B., & Iles, I. A. (2014). Cigarette warning labels: Graphics, framing, and identity. Health Education, 114(2), 101–117. doi:10.1108/HE-06-2013-0024

Zhao, X., Maibach, E., Gandy, J., Witte, J., Cullen, H., Klinger, B., Rowan, K., Witte, J., & Pyle, A. (2014). Climate change education through TV weathercasts: Results of a field experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 95, 117-130. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00144.1

Courses Taught

COMM 230- Case Studies in Persuasion

COMM 400- Introduction to Communication Research

COMM 302- Foundations of Mass Communication

COMM 430- Persuasion

COMM 600- Research Methods

COMM 620- Health Communication

COMM 632- Persuasion

COMM 750- Advanced Research Methods

COMM820 - Health Campaigns

Dissertations Supervised

Christian R. Seiter, The Death Message Processing Model: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Humor-Based Approach to Motivate Advance Care Planning (2021)

Di Pei , Chinese Parents’ Medical Decisions for Children: Why do they Choose Self-Medication with Antibiotics? (2020)

Xing Tong, Fatalism and the Processing of Fear Appeals Among Chinese: An Exploratory Study in the Context of Lung Cancer Prevention (2017)

Brenda L. MacArthur, Communication Beyond the Clinical Interaction: Delivering Comprehensive Healthcare to Patients with Intellectual Disabilities (2017)

Emily Peterson , Toward the Development of a Physician Training Curriculum to Improve Discussions about Electronic Cigarettes with Adolescent Athlete Patients (2016)

Wan-Lin Chang , Taiwanese Mother-Daughter Breast Cancer Communication and Its Influence on Daughters’ Prevention Behaviors (2015)