About Me

I’m a third-year Ph.D. candidate in communication in the College of Communication & Information Sciences at The University of Alabama. As a theoretically-driven scholar, my research examines the psychological processes underlying human interactions with immersive media (e.g., virtual/augmented reality) and artificial intelligence (e.g., AI chatbots/agents, algorithms). In my research, I adopt theoretical insights from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and communication science.

My research is interdisciplinary, spanning across entertainment, health, and risk/strategic communication, where I seek to explore how emerging media technologies affect human behavior and how we can strategically manipulate its use to improve society’s physical, mental, and social well-being.

Primarily, my research program is guided by these two questions:

(1) How and what psychological processes manifest during the consumption of emerging media? Specifically, how do these interactions influence audiences’ cognitive and emotional states, subsequently shaping their attitudes and behavior? ​

(2) How can these emerging media technologies be harvested for humanitarian means, such as those having pro-social outcomes (e.g., fostering empathy toward out-groups) or promoting healthy behaviors?

A sample of my current projects: (1) exploring the impact of social presence on the cognitive and emotional processing of deepfakes in the metaverse, (2) investigating how misinformation’s influence in the metaverse is shaped by agency (human vs. AI) and relational closeness, (3) examining the role of augmented reality in promoting prosocial behaviors, (4) assessing the influence of algorithmically-generated advertisements on heuristic processes, and (5) understanding the effects of AI-influencers’ characteristics on parasocial interaction and brand engagement. For a complete list of current and past projects, please visit my research page.

I’m a social scientist, primarily employing online/offline experiments, surveys, and psychophysiological methods (e.g., GSR, EEG).

When I’m not working, I mostly spend time playing DOTA2 or CS2/CSGO. I can be reached at smikkilineni[at]crimson[dot]ua[dot]edu