Alice Ji

Welcome to my page.

I am Alice, a PhD student at the Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I study the psychology of persuasion in digital media, especially how people pay attention, engage, and make decisions when faced with advertising, influencer marketing, health communication, or misinformation.

I design and build interactive digital environments: simulated social media feeds, shoppable streaming ads, and gacha-style games. These prototypes let me capture real user behavior in controlled settings. My methods bring together biometrics (eye-tracking, facial coding), experimental design, behavioral telemetry, and qualitative insights to map how attention, emotion, and persuasion unfold moment by moment.

My work bridges academia and industry: contributing to theories of persuasion and media effects while generating insights relevant to product design, advertising strategy, and consumer analytics.

All of my projects revolve around a core focus:

Understanding How Digital Environments Mediate Persuasion and Consumer Behavior.