Peer-reviewed manuscripts
65. Peña, J., Allen, C., Tseng, J. T., Chen, V. H. H., Ibasco, G. C., & Koek, W. J. D. (2026). Intergroup contact in virtual reality: The influence of avatar identity, social identity, and contact valence on prejudice. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448251411262
64. Tseng, J. T., Peña, J., & Xue, H. (2025). “Grandparents would rather talk; grandchildren would rather text”: The influence of ICT use on perceived social support and family communication in long-distance intergenerational familial pairs. Technology in Society, 83, 102979. DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102979
63. Peña, J., Huskey, R., Gong, X., Andrews, M. W., Weisman, W., Kee, R., Klein, V., Sarieva, S., Kang, R., Schmälzle, R., & Hancock, J. T. (2025). Media neuroscience on a shoestring 2.0: Using AR and mobile EEG hyperscanning to study cooperation. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 37(2), 116–128. DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000462
62. Weisman, W. D., & Peña, J. (2025). From robot to android to humanoid: Does self-referencing influence uncanny valley perceptions of mechanic or anthropomorphic face morphs? Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 3, 100130. DOI: 10.1016/j.chbah.2025.100130
61. Peña, J., Koebner, I., & Weisman, W. (2024). Using digital art and attachment priming in a web-based serious game to reduce pain and social disconnection in individuals with chronic pain and loneliness: Randomized controlled trial. JMIR Serious Games, 12, e52294. DOI: 10.2196/52294
60. Tseng, J. T., & Peña, J. (2024). The effects of playing versus watching an interactive video game featuring an older adult protagonist on state empathy and ageism reduction. Games for Health Journal. DOI: 10.1089/g4h.2024.0090
59. Allen, C. L., Montes, E., Hoang, T., Romo, T., Peña, J., & Navarro, J. (2023). Can stereotype threat and lift messages affect subsequent physical activity? Evidence from a controlled experiment using accelerometers. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2277573
58. Li, B. J., Peña, J., & Jung, Y. (2023). VR/AR and wellbeing: The use of immersive technologies in promoting health outcomes. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 3. [Editorial] DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2022.1119919
57. Peña, J., Aridi Barake, M., & Falin, J. M. (2023). Virtual leaders: Can customizing authoritarian and democratic business leader avatars influence altruistic behavior and leadership empowerment perceptions? Computers in Human Behavior, 141, 107616. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107616
56. Peña, J., Craig, M., & Baumhardt, H. (2022). The effects of avatar customization and virtual human mind perception: A test using Milgram’s paradigm. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448221127258
55. Koebner, I., & Peña, J. (2022). The design of a virtual museum to address social disconnection and pain among individuals with chronic pain (IWCP). Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 6(S1), 44–44. DOI: 10.1017/cts.2022.143
54. Pan, W., & Peña, J. (2021). A replication and expansion of the exposure effects of online model photos and social comparison goals on planned weight-loss behaviors. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448211055367
53. Huang-Isherwood, K., & Peña, J. (2021). Testing moral disengagement and Proteus effect predictions on feelings of guilt and self-empowerment attributed to bearing guns. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1–10. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.695086
52. Peña, J., Wolff, G., & Wojcieszak, M. (2021). Virtual reality and political outgroup contact: Can avatar customization and common ingroup identity salience reduce social distance? Social Media + Society. DOI: 10.1177/2056305121993765
51. Weisman, W., & Peña, J. (2021). Face the uncanny: The effects of doppelganger talking head avatars on affect-based trust toward AI technology are mediated by uncanny valley perceptions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24, 182–187. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2020.0175
50. Alvídrez, S., & Peña, J. (2020). Verbal mimicry predicts social distance and social attraction to an outgroup member in virtual reality. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, Utrecht, Netherlands. DOI: 10.1109/AIVR50618.2020.00023
49. Navarro, J., Peña, J., Cebolla, A., & Baños, R. (2020). Can avatar appearance influence physical activity? User-avatar similarity and Proteus effects on cardiac frequency and step counts. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1834194
48. Peña, J., & Hill, D. (2020). Examining identity shift effects in virtual reality. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23, 697–701. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2020.0010
47. Alvídrez, S., & Peña, J. (2020). Contact in VR: Testing avatar customisation and common ingroup identity cues on outgroup bias reduction. Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine, 18, 89–93. Link
46. Peña, J., & Hernandez, J. F. (2019). Game perspective-taking effects on willingness to help immigrants: A replication study with a Spanish sample. New Media & Society, 22(6), 944–958. DOI: 10.1177/1461444819874472
45. Pan, W., & Peña, J. (2019). Looking down on others to feel good about the self: The exposure effects of online model pictures on men’s self-esteem. Health Communication, 35, 731–738. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1584780
44. Chen, M., & Peña, J. (2018). The effects of physical poses on risk-taking behavior and signature size after playing with a motion-controlled video game. International Journal of Health & Media Research. Link
43. Peña, J., Hernandez, J. F., Khan, S., & Cano, A. P. (2018). Game perspective-taking effects on players’ behavioral intention, attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy to help immigrants: The case of “Papers, Please.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21, 687–693. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2018.0030
42. Peña, J., Khan, S., Burrows, C., & Blanton, H. (2018). How persuasive are health advertisements in first-person shooter games? Exploring knowledge-activation and thought-disruption mechanisms. Communication Research Reports, 35(4), 293–302. DOI: 10.1080/08824096.2018.1469484
41. Khan, S., & Peña, J. (2017). Playing to beat the blues: Linguistic agency and message causality effects on use of mental health games application. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 436–443. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.024
40. Pan, W., & Peña, J. (2017). The exposure effects of online model pictures and weight-related persuasive messages on women’s attitudes toward weight-loss planned behaviors. Journal of Health Communication, 22, 858–865. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2017.1367339
39. Peña, J., Ghaznavi, J., Brody, N., Prada, R., Martinho, C., Santos, P. A., Damas, H., & Dimas, J. (2017). Effects of human vs. computer-controlled characters and social identity cues on enjoyment. Journal of Media Psychology, 29, 1–13. DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000218
38. Peña, J., & Chen, M. (2017). With great power comes great responsibility: Superhero primes and expansive poses influence prosocial behavior after a motion-controlled game task. Computers in Human Behavior, 76, 378–385. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.039
37. Peña, J., & Chen, M. (2017). Playing with power: Power poses affect enjoyment, presence, controller responsiveness, and arousal when playing natural motion-controlled video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 428–435. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.019
36. Peña, J., & Pan, W. (2016). Words of advice: Exposure to website model pictures and online persuasive messages affects the linguistic content and style of women’s weight-related social support messages. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 208–217. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.032
35. Peña, J., Khan, S., & Alexopoulos, C. (2016). I Am What I See: How avatar and opponent agent body size affects physical activity among men playing exergames. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 21, 195–209. DOI: 10.1111/jcc4.12151
34. Peña, J., & Brody, N. (2016). Increasing cognitive readiness through computer and videogame-based training. Communication Research, 43, 571–592. DOI: 10.1177/0093650214554614
33. Brody, N., & Peña, J. (2015). Equity, relational maintenance, and linguistic features of text messaging. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 499–506. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.037
32. Yoo, S.-C., Peña, J., & Drumwright, M. (2015). Virtual shopping and unconscious persuasion: The priming effects of avatar age and consumers’ age discrimination on purchasing and prosocial behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 62–71. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.042
31. Yilmaz, G., & Peña, J. (2015). How do interpersonal behaviors and social categories affect language use? The case of virtual teams. Communication Quarterly, 63, 427–443. DOI: 10.1080/01463373.2015.1058285
30. Peña, J., & Kim, E. (2014). The influence of self and opponent avatar weight on physical activity among female gamers. Computers in Human Behavior, 41, 262–267. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.038
29. Peña, J., & Yoo, S.-C. (2014). Under pressure: Avatar appearance and cognitive load effects on persuasion, trust, bargaining, and interpersonal distance in a virtual store. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 23, 18–32. DOI: 10.1162/PRES_a_00166
28. Yilmaz, G., & Peña, J. (2014). The influence of social categories and interpersonal behaviors on future intentions and attitudes to form subgroups in virtual teams. Communication Research, 41, 333–352. DOI: 10.1177/0093650212443696
27. Peña, J., & Brody, N. (2014). Intentions to hide and unfriend Facebook connections based on perceptions of sender attractiveness and status updates. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 143–150. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.004
26. Peña, J., & Blackburn, K. (2013). The priming effects of virtual environments on interpersonal perceptions and behaviors. Journal of Communication, 63, 703–720. DOI: 10.1111/jcom.12043
25. Baptista, M., Damas, H., Dimas, J., Raimundo, G., Prada, R., Martinho, C., Santos, P., & Peña, J. (2013). A serious game based on a public goods experiment. International IEEE Conference on Social Computing, 774–781. DOI: 10.1109/SocialCom.2013.116
24. Peña, J., McGlone, M., & Sanchez, J. (2012). The automatic effects of avatar appearance and role labels in a spontaneous language use task. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 5, 1–16. DOI: 10.4101/jvwr.v5i3.6280
23. Peña, J. (2011). Integrating the influence of perceiving and operating avatars under the automaticity model of priming effects. Communication Theory, 21, 150–168. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2011.01380.x
22. Prada, R., Raimundo, G., Dimas, J., Martinho, C., Peña, J., Baptista, J., Santos, P. A., & Ribeiro, L. L. (2011). The role of social identity, rationality, and anticipation in believable agents. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS ’12), 3, 1175–1176. Link (Stable ACM link; no Crossref DOI verified)
21. Yoo, S.-C., & Peña, J. (2011). Does violence in video games impair in-game advertisement effectiveness? The impact of game context on brand recall, brand attitude, and purchase intention. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14, 439–446. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0031
20. Lin, J.-S., & Peña, J. (2011). Are you following me? A content analysis of TV networks’ brand communication on Twitter. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 12(1). DOI: 10.1080/15252019.2011.10722188
19. McNamee, L., Peterson, B., & Peña, J. (2010). Teaching, invoking, indicting, and advocating: Understanding the communication of hate groups’ websites. Communication Monographs, 77. DOI: 10.1080/03637751003758227
18. Merola, N. A., & Peña, J. (2010). The effects of avatar appearance in virtual worlds. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(5). DOI: 10.4101/jvwr.v2i5.843
17. Jin, B., & Peña, J. (2010). Mobile communication in romantic relationships: Mobile phone use, relational uncertainty, love, commitment, and attachment styles. Communication Reports, 23, 39–51. DOI: 10.1080/08934211003598742
16. Peña, J., Hancock, J. T., & Merola, N. A. (2009). The priming effects of avatars in virtual settings. Communication Research, 36, 838–856. DOI: 10.1177/0093650209346802
15. Peña, J., Walther, J. B., & Hancock, J. T. (2007). Effects of geographic distribution on dominance perceptions in computer-mediated groups. Communication Research, 34, 313–331. DOI: 10.1177/0093650207300431
14. Peña, J., & Hancock, J. T. (2006). An analysis of socioemotional and task-oriented communication in an online multiplayer video game. Communication Research, 33, 92–109. DOI: 10.1177/0093650205283103
13. Nastri, J. A., Peña, J., & Hancock, J. T. (2006). The construction of away messages in instant messenger: A speech act analysis. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 1025–1045. DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00306.x
12. Moyano, E., Peña, J., & Rubinstein, C. (2004). Primary prevention of the traffic accidents in Chile: Driver training and road safety campaigns. Revista Mexicana de Psicología, 20, 127–140. (In Spanish).
11. Conejera, M., Donoso, D., Moyano, E., Peña, J., & Saavedra, F. (2003). Persuasive communication and attitude change toward road safety among pedestrians. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 35, 77–90. (In Spanish).
Book chapters and encyclopedia entries
11. Peña, J., & Kolahchian, S. (2026). Online gaming communities. In A. Ramirez, E. Sumner, J. Hall, & B. McEwan (Eds.), Handbook of Relational and Computer-Mediated Communication.
10. Peña, J. (2020). The Proteus effect. In J. Van den Bulk, D. Ewoldsen, E. Scharrer, & E. Mares (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology. Wiley. DOI: 10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0225
9. Peña, J., Li, B. J., & Ratan, R. (2020). Digital embodiment and improving health outcomes: Healthy avatars make for healthy people. In J. Kim & H. Song (Eds.), New technology for health-related cognitive and behavioral change. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-816958-2.00002-2
8. Khan, S., & Peña, J. (2020). Using persuasive messages to increase engagement with mental health video game apps. In J. Kim & H. Song (Eds.), New technology for health-related cognitive and behavioral change. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-816958-2.00016-2
7. Peña, J. (2018). A communication model of social demands in video games. In N. Bowman (Ed.), Video games: A medium that demands our attention (pp. 126–145). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781351235266-8
6. Falin, J., & Peña, J. (2017). Shape & size: The body electric. In J. Banks (Ed.), Avatar, assembled: The social and technical anatomy of digital bodies (pp. 23–32). Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/978-1-4331-3829-4 (Book DOI)
5. Peña, J. (2016). Online gaming. In C. Berger & M. Roloff (Eds.), International encyclopedia of interpersonal communication. Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781118540190.wbeic243
4. Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Ramirez, A. Jr., Burgoon, J. K., & Peña, J. (2015). Interpersonal and hyperpersonal aspects of computer-mediated communication. In S. S. Sundar (Ed.), The handbook of psychology and communication technology (pp. 3–22). Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781118426456.ch1
3. Brody, N., & Peña, J. (2012). Face threatening messages and attraction in social networking sites: Reconciling strategic self-presentation with negative online perceptions. In C. Cunningham (Ed.), Social networking and impression management: Self-presentation in the digital age (pp. 205–226). Lexington. DOI: 10.5771/9780739178126-203
2. Shapiro, M. A., & Peña, J. (2009). Generalizability and validity in video game research. In U. Ritterfeld, M. J. Cody, & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Serious games: Mechanisms and effects (pp. 389–403). Routledge.
1. Shapiro, M. A., Peña, J., & Hancock, J. T. (2006). Realism, imagination, and narrative video games. In P. Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing computer games: Motives, responses, and consequences (pp. 275–289). Erlbaum. DOI: 10.4324/9780203873700-22