Christofer Skurka - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Christofer Skurka
Associate Professor, Film-Video and Media Studies
Scientific Program:Cancer Control
Recent Publications
2026
Jang, E, Liao, M, Skurka, C & Gil de Zúñiga, H 2026, 'Mitigating the News-Finds-Me Perception: Evaluating the intended (and unintended) effects of educational warnings on political learning', New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448261438455
Skurka, C, Cheng, Z, Goyanes, M & Gil de Zúñiga, H 2026, 'News Finds Me as the illusion of competence: evidence for overconfidence in discernment of political misinformation', Human Communication Research, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqaf015
2025
Troy, CLC, Eng, N & Skurka, C 2025, 'Green and Good? Examining Intended and Unintended Effects of Morally Framed Climate Messages', Environmental Communication, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 238-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2024.2379445
Skurka, C 2025, 'Harnessing Anger to Persuade: The Moderating Roles of Retributive Efficacy and Prior Attitudes', Media Psychology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 234-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2024.2352747
Skurka, C, Romero-Canyas, R, Joo, HH & Niederdeppe, J 2026, 'How Forced Versus Selective Exposure Matters for the Influence of Emotional Appeals About Climate Change in a Sample of Americans', Science Communication, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 32-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470251316777
Yang, Y & Skurka, C 2025, 'Making Inroads With the Outgroup: The Interactive Effects of Point of View and Group Membership in Period Poverty Narratives', Journal of Public Interest Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 4-36. https://doi.org/10.32473/jpic.v9.i1.p4
Norman, MLP, Bao, JA, Kurniasari, T & Skurka, C 2025, 'Posting environmental risk: Communicating with numerical and nonnumerical messaging across information modalities', Risk Analysis, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 1971-1983. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.17709
Skurka, C, Troy, CLC, Yang, Y, Smith, RA, Tornello, S, Rosenberger, JG, Brick, TR & Myrick, JG 2026, '“It Is in the Air”: Seeking and Scanning for Information About Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Among Young-Adult Men Who Have Sex with Men in the US', Health Communication, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 850-861. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2025.2536314
2024
Troy, CLC, Norman, M, Kim, N, Skurka, C & Myrick, JG 2024, 'Can you picture it? Effects of positive and negative depictions of climate futures on climate action intentions', Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 96, 102312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102312
Skurka, C & Keating, DM 2024, 'How repeated exposure to persuasive messaging shapes message responses over time: a longitudinal experiment', Human Communication Research, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 518-529. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqae008
Keating, DM & Skurka, C 2024, 'Meta-Analytic Evidence That Message Fatigue is Associated With Unintended Persuasive Outcomes', Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502241287875
Kim, N, Skurka, C & Madden, S 2024, 'The effects of self-disclosure and gender on a climate scientist’s credibility and likability on social media', Public Understanding of Science, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 692-708. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625231225073
Troy, CLC, Skurka, C, Joo, HH & Romero-Canyas, R 2025, 'Who is Willing to Learn About Inequality? Predictors of Choice Exposure to Messaging About Racial Disparities in Air Pollution Effects Among Black and White U.S. Residents', Health Communication, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 1672-1683. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2419192
2023
Skurka, C, Kim, N, Eng, N & Oliver, MB 2024, 'Awesome, Awful: Emotional Flow in Environmental Messaging', Media Psychology, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 869-894. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2297965
Troy, CLC & Skurka, C 2023, 'Being outdoorsy indoors: Nature connectedness through 360-degree images and video', Journal of Environmental Media, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 27-47. https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00095_1
Skurka, C, Myrick, JG & Yang, Y 2023, 'Fanning the flames or burning out? Testing competing hypotheses about repeated exposure to threatening climate change messages', Climatic Change, vol. 176, no. 5, 52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03539-8
Wheldon, CW, Skurka, C & Eng, N 2024, 'Inoculating Black/African American and LGBTQ Communities Against the Tobacco Industry: The Role of Community Connectedness and Tobacco Denormalization Beliefs', Health promotion practice, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 445-454. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399221146553
Reynolds-Tylus, T, Martinez Gonzalez, A & Skurka, C 2024, 'Leveraging Dynamic Norms to Reduce College Student Alcohol Use: A Test of Four Mediators', Health Communication, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 1371-1382. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2212447
Skurka, C & Nabi, RL 2023, Perspectives on emotion in the digital age. in Emotions in the Digital World: Exploring Affective Experience and Expression in Online Interactions. Oxford University Press, pp. 7-31. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197520536.003.0002
Skurka, C & Lee Cunningham, JJ 2023, 'Seeing the funny side: Humor in pro-environmental communication', Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 53, 101668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101668
Skurka, C, Liao, M & Gil de Zúñiga, H 2023, 'Tuning Out (Political and Science) News? A Selective Exposure Study of the News Finds Me Perception', Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231215528
De Zúñiga, HG, Goyanes, M & Skurka, C 2023, 'Understanding Fake News Corrective Action: A Mixed-Method Approach', International Journal of Communication, vol. 17, pp. 3428-3450.
2022
Skurka, C, Romero-Canyas, R, Joo, HH & Niederdeppe, J 2022, 'Choose Your Own Emotion: Predictors of Selective Exposure to Emotion-Inducing Climate Messages', Environmental Communication, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 424-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2022.2083207
Skurka, C, Troy, C, Cui, Z & Gil de Zúñiga, H 2022, 'Efficacy constructs in media use and effects: organizing and appraising the literature', Annals of the International Communication Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2022.2142150
Skurka, C, Romero-Canyas, R, Joo, HH, Acup, D & Niederdeppe, J 2022, 'Emotional Appeals, Climate Change, and Young Adults: A Direct Replication of Skurka et al. (2018)', Human Communication Research, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 147-156. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqab013
Skurka, C, Eng, N & Oliver, MB 2022, 'On the Effects and Boundaries of Awe and Humor Appeals for Pro-Environmental Engagement', International Journal of Communication, vol. 16, pp. 2709-2729.
Kalaji, M, Mathios, AD, Skurka, C, Niederdeppe, J & Byrne, S 2022, 'Youth and Young Adult-targeted E-cigarette Warnings and Advertising Messages: An Experiment with Young Adults in the US', Journal of Health Communication, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 574-584. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2138640