Dongdong Yang

University of Connecticut | UConn · Department of Communication

This study examined recognition of the six basic emotions communicated by 72 stickers provided on Chinese and American social media. Results demonstrate that sadness, happiness, and anger are recognized more accurately than disgust, fear, and surprise. An in-group advantage exists among Chinese instead of American participants, as the latter group...

Virtual stickers—as a newer generation of graphic icons—possess the potential to facilitate online intercultural communication through emotional expression. However, people from different cultural backgrounds rely on varied display and decoding rules, which lead to disagreement on the emotions communicated by stickers. Drawing from the dialect theo...

The past several decades have witnessed China’s urbanization. In keeping with the one-child policy, many Chinese parents have become empty nesters at a younger age when their only children leave home for further development. Drawing from uses and gratifications and self-determination theories, the current study utilized an online survey to investig...

We propose a three-pronged framework to study discourses surrounding social media activism initiated by networked counterpublics: personalized expressions that share stories and support, demands for changes that address systematic problems, and contentions between various actors and perspectives. Situating our analysis in discourses related to sexu...

This study employs the interactive communication technology adoption model to explain differences in cute sticker use on mobile messengers by Chinese and U.S. college students. An online survey of 205 Chinese and 304 U.S. participants reveals that Chinese participants hold stronger gender role beliefs and perceive cute stickers to be more helpful,...

The current study drew from emotional contagion and source credibility theories to investigate whether watching differentially sourced panda videos may influence attitudes toward the “brand” image of China. An experiment (N = 245) conducted with a U.S. college student sample showed that perceived source credibility and nature relatedness were posit...

A major challenge facing female sportscasters resides in their being frequently judged based on physical appearance. However, little is known about the influence of audience perceptions of female sports podcasters’ physical attractiveness when their image is unavailable. Drawing from source credibility and social role theories, the present study em...

Editing pictures before posting has become a common impression management practice among social media users. Drawing from dramaturgical theory, this study explored the dispositional and cultural predictors of portrait-editing intentions between Chinese and U.S. college females through an online survey. Results demonstrate that Chinese college femal...