Examining the mechanisms of media use from a functional perspective
(1) how entertainment media can serve important functions for individual users
(2) how entertainment serves social functions for groups and communities
(3) how narratives reflect and can reshape our understanding of the social world
CURRENT PROJECTS
Social Factors & Functions of Media Use
Media psychologists know a lot about how individuals use media. But there is so much we don’t yet know about how social processes impact these experiences.
This work seeks to understand how the people around us impact how we use media — and how media impacts our relationships. This includes understanding the social cognitive processes underlying narrative engagement; how we pick media to connect with people like us; and how stories about relationships can impact how close we feel to the people who matter to us most.
Media for Coping
People all over the world turn to media when they are stressed, depressed, lonely or worried. It’s therefore crucial that we understand how media supports users’ self-regulation (and when this strategy is and is not effective).
Mixed methods and longitudinal work examines how media is used in response to environmental stressors to manage and regulate internal need-states. In the long run, I hope this can inform intuitive, low-cost, high-impact intervention strategies.
Grady, S.M., Tamborini, R., Eden, A., Van Der Heide, B. (2022). The social factors & functions of media use. Journal of Communication.
Grady, S. (2020). Evolutionary Approaches to Narrative. In the International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology. Van den Bulck, J. (Ed.) Wiley.
Grady, S.M., Eden, A., Tamborini, R. (2024). Do ostracism/rejection impact self-disclosures? Examining the appeal of perceived social affordances after social threat. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 29(5)
Lu, C.,Grady, S.M, Baek, E. (2025, April) What drives idiosyncratic neural processing in loneliness?: Examining neural responses to uncertain and challenging media narratives. Poster at the Social & Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, Chicago IL.
Grady, S.M., Eden, A., Johnson, B. K., Reinecke, L. (2022) Media Experiences During Social Distancing. Technology Mind & Behavior.
Eden, A., Johnson, B. K., Reinecke, L., Grady, S.M. (2020). Media for coping during covid-19 social distancing: stress, anxiety, and psychological well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1554-1078
Grady, S.M., Ellithorpe, M., Wirz, D., Ulusoy, E., Vinjamuri, S., Eden, A. (in press, 2025). Intellectual TV harms relaxation, games help us detach? Different attributes of bedtime media are associated with multiple types of recovery. Psychology of Popular Media
Grady, S.M., Eden, A., Wolfers, L.N. (in press,2025). Media for Coping, Media as Comfort. Mass Communication and Society.
Ellithorpe, M.E., Eden, A., Ulusoy, E., Wirtz, D., Grady, S.M. (2024). Is bedtime media use good or bad? A competitive analysis between the sleep displacement hypothesis and the media recovery hypothesis. Media Psychology.
Judging Pretend People & Social Models of Interaction
Scientists and philosophers have suggested that we learn about social interaction by observing characters, like those in books and on tv.
But how these social models are processed, stored in memory, and applied in real life interactions is less clear. These studies examine how audiences judge and experience fictional characters as social entities — and future work will test how these fictional experiences impact real world social decision-making.
Cognitive Models of Media Processing
When we want to understand how media is experienced, the brain is an essential intermediary in this process: determining what we pay attention to, how information is processed, and ultimately how we make sense of and label those experiences.
These investigations attempt to understand the mechanisms of media exposure and effects, and particularly how they might vary between audiences and types of content.
Grady, S.M., Schmaezle, R., Baldwin, J., (2022). How shared brain activity varies over the course of a narrative in regions associated with social cognition and story comprehension. Projections.
Ewoldsen, D. R. & Grady, S. M., (2021). Retrospective imaginative involvement: Thinking about characters over time. In Real Characters: The Psychology of Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters, Dill-Shackleford, K. (Ed.), Fielding Graduate University Press.
Tamborini, R.; Baldwin, J.; Grady, S.M.; Aley, M.; Goble, H.; Olah, M.; Prabhu, S. (2024). The Impact of Comparative Moral Superiority on Protagonist Appeal. Communication Research.
Jackowski, J., Levin, D. T., Eden, A., Grady, S.M, Plantinga, C., & Smith, M. (in press 2025). Theory of mind negatively predicts reflection and positively predicts understanding. PROJECTIONS.
Ewoldsen, D.R., Hoewe, J., Grady, S.M. (in press). A hybrid cognitive model of media interpretation. Journal of Media Psychology.
Baldwin, J. & Grady, S.M., (2024) How does Narrative Content Influence Enjoyment versus Appreciation? Applying Berlyne’s Curves to Understand how the Dimensions of Narrative Challenge should Impact Appraisals. Top Paper Award, Mass Comm Division
Tamborini, R., Grady, S.M., Baldwin, J., McClaran, N., Lewis, R. (2021) The Narrative Enjoyment and Appreciation Rationale. In the Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory, Vorderer, P., & Klimmt, C. (Eds.), Oxford University Press.
Eden, A., Kryston, K., Ulusoy, E., Grady, S.M. (2021, November) Happily ever after? The effect of expectancy violations on enjoyment of romantic stories, Paper submitted to the National Communication Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA
I approach research from a rigorously collaborative and interdisciplinary perspective.
I work with scholars all over the world and embrace open, public, transparent practices which enhance our ability to replicate scientific discovery.
I embrace the principles of open science, and often use pre-registration protocols and open data practices. Materials for previous work are available through repositories such as AsPredicted, OSF, and GitHub.
Sara M. Grady 