Research inspiration
My research bridges stereotype content, emotions, social transmission, and intergroup behavior, focusing on social influence in the substantive contexts of body image and mental health. Growing up, I’ve been experiencing and witnessing the tendency that women’s bodies are objectified and judged harshly, and that those who deviate from societal beauty norms are often stigmatized. This motivates me to understand how person judgments, especially stereotypic ones, shape consumer behavior, and how this tendency entangles with evolving technology like artificial intelligence. I am dedicated to exploring interventions to mitigate biases led by stereotypic perceptions targeting minority social groups, and foster inclusivity and diversity in the marketing context.
Selected work
Why Emotional Content Spreads: A bias in value-to-others judgments
Fengshu Xie, Bruce Doré & Laurette Dubé
How competence stereotypes limit the spread of mental health online messaging
Fengshu Xie, Tala, Al-Marashdeh & Bruce Doré
Competence perceptions and affective responses limit social sharing of images featuring people with larger body sizes
Xie, F., & Doré, B. (2024). Competence Perceptions and Affective Responses Limit Social Sharing of Images Featuring People with Larger Body Sizes. Affective Science, 5(4), 405-416.
Abstract: People with larger body sizes often face underrepresentation in popular media. However, the rise of social media has led to increased visibility for this demographic group. Our research, encompassing five studies, investigated how audiences react to social media images featuring individuals with larger body sizes, focusing on affective responses and social transmission dynamics. We identified a gender-specific gap in sharing behavior such that male viewers show lower sharing intentions for such images (Study 1), mediated by stereotypic perceptions of low competence in larger-sized people and decreased positive affect (Study 2). This pattern holds for images with both female and male models (Study 3) and extends to contexts where body size is not a central factor (Study 4). To address this, we developed social norm-based interventions that effectively increase sharing intentions evoked by images of people with larger bodies, mediated by social perceptions and affective responses (Study 5). Overall, our findings shed light on the psychological factors that influence the spread of body-related imagery on social media, demonstrating how stereotypes can shape affective responses and subsequent actions like social media sharing. Beyond theoretical insights, our research offers practical strategies for amplifying societal focus on underrepresented groups and promoting more diverse and inclusive representations of body image in digital spaces.