Dr. Daniel Totzkay
Research Interests:
Social influence
Dr. Totzkay studies the nature of and reaction to health and risk communication messages. This includes communication to change health and risk behavior, the design and evaluation of health and risk communication campaigns, and addressing matters of health equity with strategic communication activities. Dr. Totzkay is currently the Principal Investigator of a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study Appalachian’s risk perceptions, information behavior, and other cognitive and affective responses during the initial two months of the COVID-19 stay at home orders. He is also the Principal Investigator of a contract with the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health, Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease to evaluate the state’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Program and the Mountains of Hope Cancer Coalition. His other work focuses on cancer communication, disparities in access and use of health information, and communicative and psychosocial barriers to accessing healthcare. Overall, Dr. Totzkay's research aims to address how a communicative study of social influence can be better applied to new or overlooked issues and contexts, as well as how communication theory can be better refined and extended to study social influence and behavior change processes.