Doctoral alumna to receive award for top health communication dissertation

Sherine El-Toukhy, a 2012 doctoral alumna of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, won the 2013 Doctoral Dissertation Award given by the health communication divisions of the International Communication Association (ICA) and the National Communication Association (NCA).

Her dissertation, “Priming optimism: The automaticity of health risk perceptions,” examines the underestimation of personal health risks. Drawing from psychological theory and research, results showed that people automatically underestimate their health risks and also overestimate their susceptibility to positive health conditions.

“Sherine's four sophisticated experiments help establish that our perceptions of how likely we are to get an illness and how severe that illness will be are not based in rational thinking,” said Jane Brown, a recently retired professor from the school and El-Toukhy’s dissertation chair. “Knowing this will help us create more effective messages when we need to get people who are at risk to take action to preserve their health and prevent disease.” 

El-Toukhy received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Dissertation Improvement grant from the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program to support her research.

She is continuing the work of her dissertation as a postdoctoral research associate in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The award will be presented during the 2013 ICA conference in London, June 17-21.