Maria Lapinski

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Biography

Dr. Maria Lapinski is Director of the Michigan State University (MSU) Health and Risk Communication Center: Healthy People-Healthy Planet, an interdisciplinary research, teaching, and public engagement network of over 50... faculty. She is appointed as a Professor in the Department of Communication and Michigan Ag-Bio Research at MSU. For six years, she served as the Associate Dean for Research for the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. In that role she facilitated interdisciplinary research partnerships and supported faculty research including leading the college’s grant support office. From 2012-2016 she led, along with Dr. Julie Funk in the College of Veterinary Medicine an interdisciplinary collaborative: One Health: Emerging Communication Technology for Decision-Making and Behavior which was seed-funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. As a result of this work, she currently serves as a Commissioner for The Lancet’s One Health Commission.

Dr. Lapinski’s research connects global health and environmental issues, cultural dynamics, and communication science. Her work examines the impact of interpersonal and mediated messages and social-psychological factors on health and environmental behaviors with a focus on cultural dynamics. To this end, Dr. Lapinski has conducted collaborative research projects with her students and colleagues in a number of countries in Asia, the Pacific Rim, Central America, and Africa and North America. Recently, she led a National Science Foundation team studying social norms and financial incentives related conservation behaviors among Tibetan populations. Her team’s award-winning work has been presented at national and international communication and public health conferences, published in refereed journals including The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Human Communication Research, Health Communication, Social Science and Medicine, and others. Her research has been funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation, World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, and United States Department of Agriculture and by foundations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Carter Center.

Dr. Lapinski teaches Intercultural Communication, International Health Communication, Interpersonal Influence, Persuasion, Risk Communication, and Health Communication for Diverse Populations.

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Industry Expertise (3)

Health and Wellness

Education/Learning

Research

Areas of Expertise (3)

Communication Sciences

Global Health

Cultural Dynamics

Accomplishments (3)

Michigan State University Teacher-Scholar Award (professional)

2010

John Hunter Meta-Analysis Award (professional)

2006 Information Systems Division of the International Communication Association

Top Paper Award (professional)

2003 Health Communication Division, International Communication Association

Education (3)

Michigan State University: Ph.D., Communication 2000

University of Hawaii at Manoa: M.A., Speech 1995

Michigan State University: B.A., Communication 1992

Affiliations (4)

• Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
• Health and Risk Communication Center : Affiliate Faculty Member
• International Communication Association
• National Communication Association

Links (5)

• Michigan State University Faculty Profile
• MSU Health & Risk Communication Center Website
• Personal Website
• ResearchGate Citations
• Google Scholar Citations

Event Appearances (3)

Social norms, behavioral payment programs, and behaviors: Toward a theory of the role of financial incentives in normative systems (FINS)

International Communication Association  Puerto Rico, USA

Recommendations for the role of communication research in one health

International Communication Association  Puerto Rico, USA

Maverick or marine: Collective group orientation and response to normative information

International Communication Association  Puerto Rico, USA

Journal Articles (5)

Understanding shark-related cognitive vulnerability and its role in shark diving: implications for conservation

Human Dimensions of Wildlife

2023 Negative perceptions and vulnerable feelings about sharks have been one of the greatest barriers to effective shark conservation efforts. This study used a self-report survey of young adults in a coastal state (N = 616) to examine how shark-related risk perceptions (severity and susceptibility) and sensation-seeking tendency influence cognitive vulnerability to sharks and its affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes.

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Predicting Breastfeeding Intentions: A Test and Extension of the Theory of Normative Social Behavior with African American Social Identity

Health Communication

2023 Breastfeeding is a health promoting social behavior but statistics suggest a persistent disparity of lower rates among African American mothers. The Theory of Normative Social Behavior (TNSB) explains when and how norms influence behaviors, but has produced inconsistent results with respect to proposed moderators group identity and injunctive norms (IN), limiting its predictive value in diverse cultural groups.

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Speaking of Values: Value-Expressive Communication and Exercise Intentions

Health Communication

2022 This study introduces the concept of value-expressive communication and examines its relationship with behavioral intent. Value-expressive communication is conceptualized as the verbal output of a value-expressive attitude.

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Culture and social norms: Behavioral decisions about grassland conservation among ethnically Tibetan pastoralists

Journal of International and Intercultural Communication

2022 Conceptions of what is typical (descriptive norms) and socially appropriate (injunctive norms) are constrained by culture. Based on interviews with Tibetan pastoralists in Western China, we examine social norms and behaviors associated with managing domesticated animals.

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Do Populists Really Reject Expert Judgment?: Expert Consensus and Support for Clean Water Act Protections

International Journal of Public Opinion Research

2022 Recent work on voting behavior and political attitudes has established the relevance of anti-intellectual (Merkley, 2020; Motta, 2018), anti-science (Mede & Schafer, 2020; Rekker, 2021) and anti-expertise (Brewer, 2020; Oliver & Rahn, 2016) attitudes in politics. However, the increasing relevance of anti-expertise attitudes raises a paradox, as one of the most well-established claims of the persuasion literature concerns the influence of expert sources on attitudes (O’Keefe, 2016; Pornpitakpan, 2004).

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