Name:

Dr. Dave Keating

Title:

Assistant Professor

Department:

Communication & Journalism

Describe your research in about 200 words.

My primary research examines social influence processes and health communication topics. Much of my current work investigates how people process persuasive messaging and how they are affected by the messages they receive. This work often tests theoretical ideas in strategic communication contexts. A secondary line of my research considers the state and practices of scientific communication research.

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned from a student?

A student once emailed me a research article that examined liberal/conservative bias in online news sources. I remember finding it very interesting that most mainstream sources, at least at the time that study was conducted, were not particularly biased (with some obvious exceptions). I told the student I was relieved that the sources I tend to use were not particularly biased–and he asked whether my relief was just a version of confirmation bias. I think he’s probably right.