Rachel A. Smith
ASSOCIATE HEAD AND PROFESSOR of Communication | Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA, UNITED STATES
Rachel A. Smith is an expert in communication, media, and quantitative social research.
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Industry Expertise (3)
Health and Wellness
Education/Learning
Media Production
Areas of Expertise (3)
Quantitative Social Research
Communication
Media
Biography
Rachel Smith is a quantitative, communication scientist who researches the social of social influence. Her theoretical approach emphasizes the socially situated and embodied nature of communication and wellbeing. She also uses quantitative methods that embrace interdependence (such as network analysis). She is particularly curious about messages that spread through social systems, such as the diffusion of health innovations and the creation of social stigmas. Her research considers three questions: How does social context shape interpersonal influence? Why do some social facts or collective norms emerge from interactions among community members? Why do some messages about health threats create stigmas about those with the health condition? Professor Smith teaches courses on health communication (CAS 453), social influence (CAS 302), health campaigns (CAS 567), basic quantitative methods (CAS 561), and advanced methods for dyadic and network data (CAS 563 “Pairs and pairings”). Her research has been funded by NIH, the Gates Foundation, CDC, USAID, and private foundations.
Education (4)
Michigan State University: Ph.D. 2003
University of Arizona: M.S. 1999
Boston University: B.S. 1994
Boston University: B.A. 1994
Links (3)
Articles (5)
Who Persuades Who? An Analysis of Persuasion Choices Related to Antibiotic-Free Food
Health Communication
Rachel A Smith, Christopher J Carpenter
2017 Personal communication, in which one person persuades another to engage in a particular behavior, is one means through which behaviors spread. To better understand how personal communication spreads behavior, we investigated adults’ (N = 228) likelihood of persuading others in a fictitious social network to buy antibiotic-free food, and who they attempted to persuade, based on behavioral determinants, homophily, and superdiffuser traits. For potential consumers, the findings showed that behavioral determinants, behavioral intentions, and mavenism predicted intentions to persuade others. Homophily, mavenism, and connectivity predicted patterns of interpersonal persuasion. For vegetarians (without homophily in action), behavioral determinants and mavenism predicted persuasion intentions. Persuasiveness was associated with targeting more network members; mavenism was associated with selecting structurally central members.
Living with a rare health condition: the influence of a support community and public stigma on communication, stress, and available support
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Xun Zhu, Rachel A Smith, Roxanne L Parrott
2017 People affected by rare diseases often have limited coping resources and sometimes face stigma. They build communities with others who share their conditions, but not all members may benefit from these communities. This study investigated how adults with a rare genetic health condition (Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency; AATD) think about both the Alpha-1 community and public stigma about AATD, and how these cognitions predict their communication responses and well-being. The results showed that people with AATD-encountered stigmatization from various sources. Stronger public stigma predicted more secrecy, more stress, and less available support. Stronger group identification with the Alpha-1 community predicted less secrecy; stronger group activism predicted more available support and more communication to challenge stigmatizers. Post hoc analyses showed significant interactions between public stigma and group cognitions on communication to challenge stigmatizers. Practical implications for bolstering communities to improve the well-being of people with rare diseases were discussed.
Investigating the Potential Impact of Social Talk on Prevention Through Social Networks: the Relationships Between Social Talk and Refusal Self-Efficacy and Norms
Prevention Science
Hye Jeong Choi, Michael Hecht, Rachel A Smith
2017 Interpersonal communication among participants plays an important role in the impact and effectiveness of prevention programs (Southwell & Yzer, Communication Theory 19:1–8, 2009). This study focused on adolescents’ informal conversations about a prevention program, referred to as social talk, from a social network perspective. We provide both a conceptualization of social talk in relation to prevention programs and an operationalization of it by examining adolescents’ social networks. Participants (N = 185) were eighth-grade students attending a middle school substance-abuse prevention program called keepin’ it REAL (kiR). Participants engaged in both positive and negative social talk about kiR. Students with higher friendship indegree centrality were more likely to have greater positive social talk indegree centrality (r = .23 p
Reducing unwarranted antibiotic use for pediatric acute otitis media: the influence of physicians' explanation and instruction on parent compliance with ‘watchful waiting’
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Erina L MacGeorge, Emily P Caldes, Rachel A Smith, Nicole M. Hackman, Alyssa San Jose
2017 ‘Watchful waiting’ (WW) involves prescribing antibiotics but advising against use unless the illness fails to improve in a set time. For childhood ear infections, WW can reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, but parents do not necessarily comply with WW advice. This study examines how physician explanation and instruction is related to parental compliance. A national sample of parents (N = 134) who received WW advice reported what they remembered physicians saying. These responses were coded for explanatory and instructional elements indicated by relevant clinical guidelines. Parents also reported whether they complied with the WW advice or administered the antibiotic immediately. Parental compliance was predicted by explanation of the nature of ear infections, instruction on monitoring, and instruction on managing pain. Few parents reported any explanation about antibiotics’ adverse effects. Findings suggest physicians can improve parent compliance with WW by improving the quality of the explanation and instruction they provide.
Understanding the Public’s Intentions to Purchase and to Persuade Others to Purchase Antibiotic-Free Meat
Health Communication
Rachel A Smith, Xun Zhu, Kaitlin Shartle, Lydia Glick, Nkuchia M M’ikanatha
2017 Extending the effectiveness of media-based campaigns into interpersonal networks has been a long concern for studies on persuasive messages, yet there is much to understand about why people attempt to persuade others to engage in health-related behaviors. This study investigated two alternative predictors of interpersonal persuasion: psychosocial determinants of behavior and homophily. We used the integrated model of behavior (IMB) to predict consumers’ intentions to purchase antibiotic-free meat, and extended the model to predict consumers’ intentions to encourage important others to do so. IMB variables predicted 44% of future purchasing intentions and 40% of future persuasion intentions. The findings support a homophily explanation for persuasion: people intend to persuade important others to do what they do. In addition, a person-centered analysis identified three audience segments based on antibiotic-resistance-related behaviors, cognitions, and experiences: Purchasers, Resisters, and New Adopters. The covariate analysis revealed that people who had more topic awareness of antibiotic use in animal husbandry, knowledge of someone with an antibiotic-resistant infection, and health mavenism were more likely to be Purchasers than Resisters or New Adopters. Anxiety, however, was highest among New Adopters and lowest among Resisters. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
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