About

Ilwoo Ju is an associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, specifically within the Brian Lamb School of Communication. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and has previously served as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Saint Louis University, where he taught advertising research and strategic communication strategy. His primary research interests include advertising, marketing communication effects and processes, persuasion, and pro-consumer issues in communication contexts. Ju conducts research in the fields of advertising, public relations, marketing, and health communication, focusing on consumer health decision-making, marketing ethics, and pro-consumer issues in digital media communication contexts. He has published his work in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Health Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Communication in Healthcare, and Journal of Promotion Management. Ju is recognized as an award-winning scholar and has received research fellowships from the American Academy of Advertising. He has also served as an Advertising Educational Foundation Visiting Professor. In his teaching, Ju covers advertising, strategic communication research and planning, and integrated marketing communication. He works closely with graduate students on project-based research aligned with their academic and career goals, emphasizing long-term relationships beyond individual projects.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Political Science
• Clinical psychology
• Business
• Nursing
• Advertising

Selected publications

• The Role of Vaccine Education Advertising in Countering Misinformation: Insights from the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction

  Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising · 2026-01-23

  article1st authorCorresponding
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• Framing Effects on AI Adoption in Organizations: The Moderating Roles of Loss Aversion and Involvement

  Communication Reports · 2025-10-31 · 1 citations

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• Dark Patterns in Data-Consent Disclosures and Consumer Reactance to Online Behavioral Advertising

  Journal of Advertising · 2025-12-15 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
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• Exploring public-sector YouTube influencer PR strategies: a mixed-methods field study

  Journal of Applied Communication Research · 2025-05-19

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• Correcting COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation: How Vaccine Information, Norm Beliefs, and Relational Closeness Influence Correction Intention

  Health Communication · 2025-11-14

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  Drawing on the integrative model of behavioral prediction (IMBP) and the social norms approach, this study examines how exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information influences intentions to correct vaccine misinformation, with attention to the moderating role of relational closeness. An experiment with 1,064 U.S. adults conducted in early 2021 shows that exposure to vaccine information increases correction intentions through perceived social norms. Relational closeness moderated this process in a counterintuitive way: although overall correction intentions were highest for friends, the effect of information exposure on norms was steeper for strangers, suggesting ceiling effects among close ties. By situating misinformation correction as a socially embedded and normatively governed decision, this study extends the IMBP to the context of vaccine misinformation and highlights how background factors, social norms, and relational dynamics jointly shape corrective behavior.

  PublisherDOI

• Media Influence on Bystander Intervention for Health Protective Norms: The Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction Perspective

  Journal of Health Communication · 2024-05-03 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  =1,426) indicate a positive correlation between seeking health information from the media and the intention to confront norm violators regarding mask-wearing. This correlation is mediated through three intermediary pathways: attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioral control. These discoveries address a previously unexplored area concerning pro-social health behaviors, bystander intervention, and contribute to the field of health communication by linking them to research on media influences. Combining media and peer interventions could lead to more effective health outcomes. The discussion covers both theoretical and practical implications.

  PublisherDOI

• The Role of Optimistic Bias and Affect on Social Media Searches About COVID-19

  Health Communication · 2024-07-21 · 2 citations

  article1st author

  The preventive health behavior people adopt is partly a result of the risk they perceive from the threat, and health behavior theory has shown that risk communication is a critical part of that outcome. But risk to self and risk to others are often judged differently. Optimistic bias, which describes an unrealistic level of optimism about a threat, is a well described and frequently observed phenomenon in the study of health behavior. Traditional measurements of this construct have typically used the difference in self and other risk levels, which may obscure the impact. This study used a moderated mediation path with other-risk as a moderator of self-risk to study how optimistic bias and emotion about a rapidly changing risk may impact information seeking about it through social medial channels, which represent a still nascent but evolving media for credible health information. Results showed that optimistic bias about developing symptoms of COVID was indeed present and that the effect of perceived self-risk was mediated by fear and anxiety to predict social media searches about the threat. Further, affect and social media search behavior decreased with increasing levels of perceived other risk, indicating optimistic bias served to dampen a person's motivation to seek information. The implications of the results on health behavior theory, risk communication, and public health practice are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Standing Up to the Maskless: Antecedents of Norm Enforcement Behavior and Meta-Norm Misperception During COVID-19 at a College Campus

  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 2024-07-30 · 1 citations

  article

  Extending theorization on bystander intervention, this study examined antecedents of upstanding, a communication practice in which bystanders communicate disapproval to norm violators, using the context of mask wearing during COVID-19. Survey findings from undergraduate students revealed that perceived legitimacy of intervention played a key role in decisions to stand up to mask norm violators. In addition, anticipation of hostile responses from the confronted party and bystander indifference discouraged upstanding behavior or intentions. Participants also expected to receive less support from bystanders in a hypothetical episode as an upstander than what they intended to offer an upstander as a bystander.

  PublisherDOI

• Fueling Doubt or Bridging Knowledge Gaps? The Interactive Influence of Mass and Social Media on Vaccine Skepticism

  Communication Reports · 2024-11-28 · 6 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
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• Digital drug marketing

  2024-12-02

  book-chapter

  Chapter 18, by Jennifer Gerard Ball, Ilwoo Ju, and Yuhui Zhu, explores digital advertising in the highly regulated pharmaceutical sector. The chapter highlights how digital technologies have transformed media consumption, consumer behaviours, and health management practices in pharmaceutical advertising. The authors examine regional differences in regulatory approaches, contrasting the UK’s conservative stance with the more liberal policies in New Zealand and the US, where direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is prevalent. The chapter discusses the explosive growth of digital drug advertising on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, extending to influencer marketing. It connects advertising theories with regulatory frameworks, highlighting the need to re-evaluate norms to address unique risks and trust issues in pharmaceutical advertising. The authors emphasise cautious management of digital disruptions, especially with new formats like podcasts and branded content. They underscore the importance of distinguishing authoritative sources in pharmaceutical communications and advocate for adaptive regulatory frameworks to keep pace with evolving digital marketing strategies.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer E. Ohs

  Saint Louis University

  12 shared

• Amber Hinsley

  Saint Louis University

  11 shared

• Taehwan Park

  St. John's University

  7 shared

• Jin‐Seong Park

  Hanyang University

  7 shared

• Tae Hwan Park

  Kyungpook National University

  5 shared

• Hwanseok Song

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  3 shared

• Eylül Yel

  2 shared

• Hyunmin Lee

  Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Research fellowship recipient of the American Academy of Adv…
• Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF) Visiting Professor