March 15, 2024
John Brand, PhD
Research Scientist
Department of Epidemiology
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
About the Presentation: The at-risk college population presents an opportunity to combat obesity and problematic drinking behaviors. A prominent, yet underexplored risk factor that may contribute to obesity and problematic alcohol use among college students is the rapid rise in negative news media exposure via social media. Social media is the predominate source through which college students receive their news, the majority of which is sensationalized with graphic depictions of current events (e.g., Ukraine Invasion and the Gaza War). Social media news feeds often embed advertisements, many of which promote highly palatable foods and alcohol targeted to college students. My work introduces a novel eye tracking paradigm using a smartphone platform to investigate how negative news shown in conjunction with food and alcohol ads may contribute to problematic drinking and obesogenic behaviors among college students. This paradigm is grounded in the sensitization-theory of addiction and predicts that negative news exposure increases negative affect to heighten cue reactivity to food and alcohol ads thereby increasing craving and consumption behavior.
About the Presenter: Dr. John Brand is a research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He is a trained cognitive psychologist. He received his PhD in cognitive neuroscience from Concordia University (Montreal Quebec, Canada) and completed his post-doc fellowship at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. His areas of expertise are experimental cognitive psychology – with a focus on eye tracking methodology – and the cognitive processes that guide decision making. His current work focuses on the development and use of cognitive paradigms to better understand child and adolescent health.