photo of Dr. Rachel Wade

Dr. Rachel Wade

Assistant Professor
Communication Studies, School of Communication
Office Location: Doti Hall 210
Education:
Albion College, Bachelor of Arts
Michigan State University, Master of Arts
The Ohio State University, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Rachel Barry Wade (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication. Her research aims to disentangle how strategic message design interacts with audience identity to influence persuasive outcomes. To accomplish this, she explores and experimentally tests metacognitive and affective processes across social issues in health, politics, and sustainability. She is particularly interested in how these factors influence the way people talk about persuasive messages. Her work has been published in a variety of outlets, such as Journal of Health Psychology,Journal of Communication, Political Communication, and Health Communication.

Dr. Wade teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at
Chapman, primarily in the areas of strategic communication, persuasion, campaigns, and message design.

Publications:

Wade,R.B., Ryu, J., Shulman, H.C., Hovick, S. (2025). Improving processing fluency to encourage family health information seeking: The mediating role of communication efficacy. Journal of Health Psychology, 30(8), 2046-2060.
doi: 10.1177/13591053241294116

Bashian, S., Wade, R.B., Lerner, B. Shulman, H.C. (2025). When fears come true: An   experimental approximation of patient comprehension during initial cancer diagnoses.Health Communication, 40(8), 1403-1414.
doi: 10.1080/10410236.2024.2400819

Shulman, H.C., Holt, L.F., Riggs, E., Wade,R.B. (2025). The role of framing, race, and symbolic racism in policy support. Political Communication, 42(5), 838-860. doi: 10.1080/10584609.2025.2463923

Turner, M.M., Jang. Y., Heo, R., Ye, Q., Wade, R.B., Lapinski, M., Peng, T.Q. (2025).
Mask wearing as a prosocial behavior: Proposing and testing the moral norms activation model. PLOS One, 20(5), 1-15. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322921         

Wade,R.B.,Turner, M.M., Hamdy, R., Jang, Y., Heo, R.J, Liu, C.M. (2024). Who says what to whom through what channel? Formative communication research on antibiotic resistance messaging for urgent care patients. Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology, 4(e177), 1-7.  doi: 10.1017/ash.2024.429

Turner, M. M., Wade,R.B.,Heo R., Ye, Q., Jang, Y. (2024). Development and
validation of the commitment to social activism scale using the Thurstone scaling  
procedure. Communication Research Reports, 41(3), 178-192. 
doi:10.1080/08824096.2024.2374413

Turner, M.M., Jang, Y., Wade R., Heo, R.J., Ye, Q., Hembroff, L.A., & Lim, J. (2024). The effects of moral norms and anticipated guilt on COVID19 prevention behaviors. Current Psychology, 43(18),16767-16779. doi: 10.1007/s12144-023-04477-5

Carnahan, D., Bergan, D., Ahn, S., Ulusoy, E., & Wade,R.B.(2024). Assessing the potential of partisan group cues in promoting accurate political beliefs. Mass Communication and Society, 27(5), 1-23. doi: 10.1080/15205436.2022.2127367

Carnahan, D., Ulusoy, E., Barry, R., McGraw, J., Virtue, I., Bergan, D.E. (2022). Which misinformation to belief? A conjoint analysis of the influence of message characteristics on belief in, perceived credibility of, and intent to share political posts. Journal of Communication, 72(5), 592-603. doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac023

Jang, Y., Turner, M. M., Heo, R., & Barry, R. (2021). A new approach to audience segmentation for vaccination messaging: Applying the anger activism model. Journal of Social Marketing, 11(4), 424-452.doi: 10.1108/jsocm-10-2020-0206

Ulusoy, E., Carnahan, D., Bergan, D., Barry,R.,Ma, S., Ahn, S., McGraw, J. (2021) Flooding the zone: How exposure to implausible statements shapes subsequent belief judgments. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 33(4), 856-872.  doi: 10.1093/ijpor/edab022

Ahn, S., Bergan, D., Carnahan, D., Barry, R.,Ulusoy, E. (2021). Perceptions of out  party beliefs, corrections, and belief accuracy. Journal of Political Marketing, 20(3-4), 269-288.doi: 10.1080/15377857.2021.1939570

Conference Presentations:

Bailey, C., Qin, Y., Ryu, J., Wade, R.B. (2024). Navigating the cyberhealth divide: Exploring sociodemographic and interpersonal predictors of telehealth use and health outcomes. [Paper accepted]. 110th National Communication Association Conference (NCA), New Orleans, LA.

Wade, R.B., Kline, S. (2024). “I can trust her to watch out for me”: Testing the theory of motivated information management for persons with Type 1 Diabetes. [Paper accepted]. 14th Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC), Lexington, KY.

Wade, R.B., Ryu, J., Shulman, H.C., Hovick, S. (2023). Identifying the causes of uncertainty and uncertainty management: A metacognitive approach. [Paper accepted]. 109th National Communication Association Conference (NCA), National Harbor, MD.

Turner, M. M., Jang, Y., Heo, R. J., Wade,R.B.,& Ye, Q. (2023). Theeffectsofangerandguilt appeals on information management in the context of ocean plastic pollution [Extended abstract accepted]. 109th National Communication Association Conference (NCA), National Harbor, MD.

Barry,R.C, Shulman, H.C. (2022). Anexperimentaltestoftheaccessibility-applicability model using three different types of frames. [Paper accepted]. 108th National Communication Association Conference (NCA), New Orleans, LA.

Merrill, K., *Barry, R. (2022). Individual differences in the mediating role of patient-centered communication in cancer patient health outcomes. [Paper accepted]. 13th Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC), Lexington, KY.

Barry,R.,Turner, M. M., Heo R., Ye, Q., Jang, Y. (2022). Developmentandvalidationofthe commitment to social activism scale. [Paper accepted]. 72nd International Communication Association Conference (ICA), Paris, FR.

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