About

Francesca Renee Dillman Carpentier is the W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor at UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She has taught courses including behavioral science in health communication, a seminar in media effects and media psychology, and statistics for social sciences. Her research primarily focuses on how different parts of a media message can influence thoughts, beliefs, and actions in subtle but significant ways, often without individuals' explicit awareness. She investigates what motivates people to select certain media content and how these motivations can amplify the effects of their choices. Carpentier’s recent research collaborations include work with the Carolina Population Center’s Global Food Research Program, examining the role of marketing in children’s nutrition and food preferences. She has also conducted projects on the role of media in young adults’ sexual health. Her research has been supported by various funding sources, including university, association, federal, and philanthropic organizations. The findings from her projects have been published in academic journals across communication, psychology, and public health.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Advertising
• Sociology
• Business
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Gender studies
• Demography
• Marketing
• Mathematics
• Food science
• Chemistry
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• Recognize & Resist: An Online Health Intervention to Promote Writing About Sexual Consent and Egalitarian Gender Roles Among One Direction Fanfiction Writers

  UNC Libraries · 2025-03-29

  articleOpen access

  This paper focuses on the development and feasibility of a digitally-based educational intervention, titled <em>Recognize &amp; Resist (R&amp;R)</em>, for writers of One Direction (1D) fanfiction on Wattpad.com. The goal of <em>R&amp;R</em> is to reduce the prevalence of social norms that are supportive of sexual violence within 1D fanfiction. 1D fanfictions, or fictional romance stories written by fans of this British boy band, have hundreds of millions of views on Wattpad.com. Formative research has found that social norms supportive of sexual violence are prevalent in 1D fanfictions and that some authors have internalized these norms. <em>R&amp;R</em> aims to motivate 1D fanfiction writers to highlight sexual consent and egalitarian gender roles in their writing. To evaluate the intervention's feasibility, 15 1D fanfiction authors completed a survey and participated in an interview or focus group. Results demonstrate <em>R&amp;R's</em> feasibility, with high ratings of its acceptability and demand. Insights from the interviews and focus groups provide suggestions for revising <em>R&amp;R</em> before rigorously evaluating its efficacy. Additionally, results demonstrate the utility of using popular culture as a vehicle for attitude-change regarding sensitive health issues.

  PublisherDOI

• How current and potential pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users experience, negotiate and manage stigma: disclosures and backstage processes in online discourse

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Research on stigma as a barrier to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake for reducing risk of HIV infection has focused on the experience of stigma-othering, shaming and blaming and the associated negative social consequences of this stigmatisation. This study expands this focus to examine how current and potential users of PrEP discuss their experiences of stigmatisation, in addition to their anticipation, preparation and management of stigmatising encounters. The corpus of testimonial blog posts from the "My PrEP Experience" website, reader comments on those posts, and information available through hyperlinks in the posts and comments, were subjected to a qualitative textual analysis. Findings revealed stigmatising labels and perceptions identified in other PrEP and HIV-related stigma research. Findings also revealed the active seeking and sharing of strategies for coping with and challenging stigma, including the creative re-appropriation of negative labels and calls for advocacy. The discussion considers how the described preparation and management strategies can inform future efforts to reduce stigma and encourage PrEP uptake.

  PublisherDOI

• National Policies to Limit Food Marketing and Competitive Food Sales in Schools: A Global Scoping Review

  UNC Libraries · 2025-12-18

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Examining the co-occurrence of nutritional warning labels and environmental labels on food packages: Effects on consumer perceptions and likelihood of purchase

  Food Quality and Preference · 2025-11-19

  article
  PublisherDOI

• National Policies to Limit Nutrients, Ingredients, or Categories of Concern in School Meals: A Global Scoping Review.

  UNC Libraries · 2025-12-18

  articleOpen access

  The school food environment is a key intervention point for influencing children's and adolescents' diets. As more countries establish school meal programs to provide critical nourishment to students, establishing standards for the foods served can increase the consumption of key nutrients and limit the consumption of foods that do not build health. This global scoping review explores the prevalence and basic characteristics of national policies that regulate food served through school meals across 193 countries, particularly by restricting the provision of categories, nutrients, or ingredients of nutritional concern. We gathered evidence from policy databases, grey literature, peer-reviewed literature, and primary policy documents. We included nationally mandated policies that included restrictions on categories, nutrients, or ingredients of concern served in school meals. Policies that were sub-national, voluntary, and/or did not include restrictive language were excluded from this review. Data was collected in research electronic data capture then extracted into Microsoft Excel and analyzed for policy frequency, prevalence by world region or country income group, and prevalence of certain policy characteristics. Globally, only 15% of countries were found to have a national-level policy restricting foods served through school meals in some capacity, including either nutritional or categorical restrictions. The majority of these policies were found in high-income countries, and no low-income countries had a policy meeting inclusion criteria. Policies in Latin-American and Caribbean countries limited the content of more nutrients of concern than in other regions. Although many policies included explicit guidelines to monitor implementation, few outlined mechanisms for policy enforcement. Future research should evaluate the impact of various school meal regulatory approaches, including implementation of similar policies at sub-national levels, and other elements that affect the impact of school meal programs, such as procurement, infrastructure, costs to school and to students and their families, and acceptability and consumption of foods provided.

  PublisherDOI

• South African Adolescents’ Perspectives on Healthy and Unhealthy Foods and the Drivers of Their Food Choices in Their School Food Environment

  Preprints.org · 2025-10-17

  preprintOpen access

  Objective: To investigate South African adolescent school-going learners’ knowledge and understanding of healthy and unhealthy foods and the drivers of their food choices in their school food environment (SFE). Design: Qualitative participatory research methods including workshops, photovoice and focus group discussions (FGDs). Setting: Two public high schools, 1 non-metropolitan and 1 metropolitan, within 2 separate provinces (Eastern Cape and Gauteng) in South Africa. Participants: Adolescents 14-18 years (n=42). Results: Unhealthy ultra-processed foods (UPFs) were found to be rampant in the SFE, and healthy foods were scarce, limiting learners’ choices. Taste preference was a major driver of adolescent food choices as were satiety, value for money, affordability, convenience, visual appeal and seeming “cool or “rich” by purchasing branded franchise fast foods. Learners had some general nutrition knowledge, but this did not transpire into healthy food choices. Banning unhealthy foods in the SFE and providing affordable and satiating healthy foods in the SFE were proposed as solutions. Conclusion: UPFs such as packaged foods and fast foods were considered tasty but unhealthy yet preferred. Interventions are needed to promote healthy diets by changing the SFE, and eventually adolescent food choices. This will require government regulation banning the sale of unhealthy food and beverages (F&amp;amp;Bs) in the SFE and subsidizing healthy satiating foods to change dietary behaviour.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding, perceived food healthiness and self-reported food purchase behaviors in Chilean mothers of preschoolers and adolescents: a natural experiment after the first year of the Food Labeling and Advertising Law

  2025-03-19

  preprintOpen access

  Chile has one of the highest global obesity rates, particularly among children, with diet-related chronic diseases being the leading cause of death. To combat this, the Chilean government implemented the 2016 Law of Food Labeling and Advertising, which introduced front-of-package warning labels (FOPL), marketing restrictions, and sales prohibitions on foods high in added sugars, saturated fats, sodium, or excessive energy content. This study assessed the impact of the warning FOPL on understanding, perceived healthiness of food products, and self-reported purchasing behaviors among 889 mothers of preschoolers and 740 adolescents from low-middle income backgrounds after one year of implementation. A pre-post quasi-experimental study was conducted using data from the Growth and Obesity Cohort Study (GOCS) and the Food Environment Chilean Cohort (FECHIC). Surveys were administered before (2016) and after (2017) implementation to evaluate comprehension of the FOPL, changes in perceived food healthiness, and shifts in purchasing decisions. Logistic regression models adjusted for key covariates analyzed changes over time. Most participants (mothers: 96%; adolescents: 93%) correctly identified warning labels as indicators of unhealthy food. The perceived healthiness of sugar-rich products decreased significantly (p&amp;lt;0.001). Use of nutritional information when purchasing food increased among mothers (56% to 70%) and adolescents (23% to 31%), with 50% of mothers and 39% of adolescents specifically using the FOPL in decision-making. The warning FOPL was well understood, highly valued, and contributed to improved nutritional perceptions and purchasing behaviors among low-middle income populations. These findings support the effectiveness of warning labels as a public health strategy to encourage healthier dietary choices.

  PublisherDOI

• Priming Sexual and Romantic Representations in Two Media Environments: Sex Encourages and Romance Discourages Sexual Permissiveness … Sometimes

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-20

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Two experiments (Ns&nbsp;=&nbsp;314, 447) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of sexual cues in temporarily increasing young adults' self-reported sexual permissiveness, as well as the effects of romantic cues in temporarily decreasing permissiveness. Participants were exposed to sexual or romantic cues embedded as a theme-defining component of an online game (Study 1) or in advertisements peripheral to the online game (Study 2). Sexual and romantic conditions were compared against a control condition. As hypothesized, participants in the romantic conditions rated themselves lower in sexual permissiveness, compared to participants in the sexual and control conditions, particularly when participants positively evaluated the online game experience. Findings suggest that exposure to entertaining media depictions of two people, as a committed couple, expressing love, as well as lust, for each other might deter young adults from considering engagement in casual sexual encounters indicative of "hookup culture."

  PublisherDOI

• Reel reflections: the role of entertainment media narratives in coping among young adult cancer survivors

  Journal of Psychosocial Oncology · 2024-04-25 · 1 citations

  article

  INTRODUCTION: Young adult cancer survivors (YACS; ages 18-39) report a significant psychological burden. Entertainment media narratives (e.g., books, movies, shows that are produced for mass consumption) might be an effective tool for reducing this distress, although little is known about present use among YACS. METHOD: YACS completed a survey about their use of entertainment media narratives to cope with cancer using an adapted version of the Brief COPE. Additionally, YACS reported their use of entertainment media narratives to start conversations about their experience with others, and they described features of entertainment media narratives that they found helpful in coping. RESULTS: = 32; 29.6%) were significantly younger and significantly closer to the end of their primary treatment. Compared to nonusers, users of entertainment media narratives to cope were also more likely to identify as Black; identifying as Black was associated with a 2.05-factor increase in using narrative entertainment media to cope with cancer even when controlling for other demographic differences. Additionally, compared to their peers, Black YACS reported greater use of narratives to start cancer-related conversations. Emotional and inspirational storylines were the most helpful story features. DISCUSSION: Some YACS, especially Black YACS, use stories to cope with their cancer experience. YACS patients could find stories useful in exploring their cancer-related emotions, although the exact benefits are still unknown.

  PublisherDOI

• Considering the Future of Pharmaceutical Promotions in Social Media; Comment on “Trouble Spots in Online Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Promotion: A Content Analysis of FDA Warning Letters”

  UNC Libraries · 2024-07-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This commentary explores the implications of increased social media marketing by drug manufacturers, based on findings in Hyosun Kim's article of the major themes in recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letters and notices of violation regarding online direct-to-consumer promotions of pharmaceuticals. Kim's rigorous analysis of FDA letters over a 10-year span highlights a relative abundance of regulatory action toward marketer-controlled websites and sponsored advertisements, compared to branded and unbranded social media messaging. However, social media marketing efforts are increasing, as is FDA attention to these efforts. This commentary explores recent developments and continuing challenges in the FDA's attempts to provide guidance and define pharmaceutical company accountability in marketer-controlled and -uncontrolled claims disseminated through social media.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lindsey Smith Taillie

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  29 shared

• Camila Corvalán

  University of Chile

  15 shared

• Fernanda Mediano Stoltze

  Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

  13 shared

• Marcela Reyes

  University of Chile

  11 shared

• Dolf Zillmann

  10 shared

• Barry M. Popkin

  10 shared

• Silvia Knobloch

  University of California, Davis

  10 shared

• Teresa Correa

  10 shared

Education

• PhD

  University of Alabama

  2002

• MA

  University of Alabama

  1999

• BA

  Northern Arizona University

  1997

Awards & honors

• W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor