Allison Eden
Associate Professor Michigan State University
- East Lansing MI
Allison Eden's work centers on understanding media enjoyment, and more broadly the effects of entertainment on user behavior and well-being.
Media
Biography
Dr. Eden is the current Director of Doctoral Studies in Communication.
Dr. Eden is the lead instructor for the Introduction to Human Communication (COM 100) course at Michigan State University. She also teaches Audience Response to Media Entertainment (COM 375). At the graduate level, Dr. Eden teaches Effective College Teaching (CAS 892) and Mass Communication Theory (COM 821) in alternating years.
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Donald F. Koch Quality in Undergraduate Teaching Award
2022
Michigan State University
Distinguished Article Award
2022
NCA Social Cognition Division
Top Paper
2023
National Communication Association, Mass Communication Division
Education
University of Baltimore
B.S.
Corporate Communication
2004
College of William and Mary
M.S.
Experimental Psychology
2006
Michigan State University
Ph.D.
Communication
2011
Affiliations
- Psychology of Popular Media (APA) : Associate editor
News
Why Facebook is so hard to resist
MSU Today online
2017-08-03
Why is social media such a hard habit to break? Because it makes us feel good, said Michigan State University’s Allison Eden, assistant professor in the Department of Communication.
The psychology of screen time
MSU Today online
2019-06-12
Morgan Ellithorpe, assistant professor of advertising and public relations, partnered with Allison Eden, assistant professor of communication, to conduct research on the effects of binge watching. The two presented their findings at the 67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association.
Did you know that binge-watching has actual health benefits?
SCREENSHOT Media online
2022-01-10
The lack of analysis behind the term’s definition is also why some researchers believe we’re too quick to ignore the benefits it also provides. “What is a binge? That’s something we’re still trying to define,” explained Allison Eden to Mashable. Eden is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University (MSU) who researches the effects of entertainment on people’s well-being. For its story, the publication decided to call it around three or more episodes, “as some have suggested.” We’re going along with the same defining quantity.
Research Grants
Character engagement and moral understanding in screen stories
Templeton Religion Trust: Art Seeking Understanding
2022-2025
Neurocognitive and behavioral constituents of nonverbal speaker-listener attunement during science communication
National Science Foundation
2023-2026
Journal Articles
The complicated impact of media use before bed on sleep: Results from a combination of objective EEG sleep measurement and media diaries
Journal of Sleep Research2022
Media use has been linked to sleep disturbance, but the results are inconsistent. This study explores moderating conditions. A media diary study with 58 free-living adults measured the time spent with media before bed, the location of use, and multitasking. Electroencephalography (EEG) captured bedtime, total sleep time, and the percent of time spent in deep (Stage N3), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
The social factors and functions of media use Get access Arrow
Journal Of Communication2022
A heuristic model aims to organize and synthesize the substantial body of work examining the social influences that shape media selection, experiences, and effects. The Social Influences and Media Use (SIMU) model describes three broad social forces (users’ internal social needs, their social environment, and the social affordances of media) and their recursive association with media use.
Daily TV Use and Meaning in Life Among Older Adults: The Moderating Role of Selective and Compensatory TV Use
Mass Communication and Society2022
Older adults (60+) spend a considerable amount of time watching TV. This can have important implications in terms of their daily sense of meaning in their life. Applying the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model, we argue that the impact of the daily amount of time spent watching TV on daily perceptions of meaning in life is moderated by whether TV is generally used in a compensatory or selective manner.
Computationally modeling mood management theory: a drift-diffusion model of people’s preferential choice for valence and arousal in media Get access Arrow
Journal Of Communication2023
Mood management theory (MMT) hypothesizes that people select entertainment content to maintain affective homeostasis. However, this hypothesis lacks a formal quantification of each affective attributes’ separate impact on an individual’s media content selection, as well as an integrated cognitive mechanism explaining media selection.
Binge-watching to feel better: Mental health gratifications sought and obtained through binge-watching.
Psychology of Popular Media2023
Depression and anxiety have recently increased among young adults. So, too, have the media behaviors of binge-watching and problematic viewing. Media may be an effective tool for coping with stress and mental health challenges. The present study examines mental health management gratifications sought and obtained via media using a uses and gratifications theory approach.
