I believe the intricacy of interpersonal communication theories lies in capturing their dyadic nature: how messages exchanged between two people mutually influence each other by building shared understanding, new ideas, and identities. Yet few theories fully capture the complexity of dyadic discourse. Studying message production and processing throughout my undergraduate and Master’s, I engaged with this riddle by learning how to critically extend, revise, and integrate pre-existing message production and processing theories. Moving forward, I want to grow as an interpersonal influence scholar who contributes to understanding how people produce and process advice and persuasive messages in goal-complex situations.

I am interested in building theories for advice and persuasion in health interactions, expanding across interpersonal relationships and AI-human health interventions. For example, I plan to experimentally test different chatbots as well as define how interpersonal interventions, campaign messages, and personalized AI chatbots differ in their effects and mechanisms in the context of health persuasion and support. Additionally, my interest lies on testing the longitudinal effects of social support in a health context such as chronic illness patients. Reflecting on empirical findings of communal coping’s negative effects, I am curious when both support providers and recipients feel the burden in coping with chronic stressors, and how it changes the production and processing of supportive messages as well as the supportive relationship.