About

Jesse Fox is a Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. His research primarily examines the effects and implications of various technologies, including social media, virtual reality, video games, mobile applications, podcasts, conversational agents, algorithms, and robots. He is particularly interested in how engagement with these technologies influences individuals' identities, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Fox employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing experiments, surveys, content analyses, interviews, focus groups, and observational studies, often applying a user experience framework to his research and consulting on UX issues. He collaborates with graduate and undergraduate students in his lab, VECTOR (Virtual Environment, Communication Technology, and Online Research), and his research interests are driven by both his curiosity and the interests of his students. His scholarly work spans several subareas of communication, including computer-mediated communication, human-computer interaction, interpersonal communication, intergroup communication, mass communication, media psychology, health communication, environmental communication, science communication, and risk communication. Fox's interdisciplinary approach draws from fields such as psychology, computer science, sociology, criminology, education, gender studies, biology, and zoology. His research topics include relationship dynamics involving humans and agents, online harassment, social identity processes, parasocial relationships, effects of technology on relationships, objectification, prosocial virtual environments, crime, social and technological affordances, avatar identification, embodiment, and research ethics. In addition to his research, Fox is dedicated to teaching about technologies, emphasizing their relevance to everyday life and fostering critical, informed, and media-literate citizens. His personal interests include music, sports, outdoor activities, road tripping, cooking, herping, and enjoying Kentucky culture, especially Derby events.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cognitive science
• Human–computer interaction
• Cognitive psychology
• Law
• Public relations
• World Wide Web
• Communication
• Developmental psychology
• Criminology
• Art
• Aesthetics
• Engineering ethics

Selected publications

• Cross-cultural generalizability of the Numinous Motivation Inventory to China.

  Psychology of Religion and Spirituality · 2026-02-12

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Abstract 6628: Deep dive into the performance of structural variants reported by PGDx elio plasma focus Dx

  Cancer Research · 2025-04-21

  article

  Abstract Introduction: Liquid biopsy NGS assays allow for detection of genes clinically relevant to oncology including structural variants such as amplifications and translocations. Due to their low concentration in plasma, structural variants can be difficult to detect with liquid biopsy. Translocations in particular present challenges due to their low prevalence in ctDNA as opposed to RNA. PGDx elio™ plasma focus Dx is an IVD tumor profiling assay which reports 33 genes including difficult to detect structural variants with high sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and reproducibility. Here, the performance of structural variants is explored using data from analytical validation studies. Methods: Samples were processed with PGDx elio plasma focus Dx, a NGS based tumor profiling assay capturing 33 clinically relevant genes using cfDNA obtained from plasma. For amplifications, 5 genes are reported (ERBB2, MET, CCND1, CD274, and FGFR2) and for translocations, 3 genes are reported (ALK, NTRK1, and RET). Libraries were sequenced with 150 bp paired end NGS and processed through the EPF software which performs demultiplexing, alignment, and variant calling utilizing DK for amplifications and PARE for translocations. Analytical validation studies were conducted at the gene level across key studies including accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility. For accuracy, results were compared to 5 orthogonal methods with a total of 931 clinical samples across 35 solid tumor types. Specificity was assessed with 68 healthy plasma samples. To assess sensitivity, all amplifications and translocations were established with a dilution series using cell line blends spiked into plasma and confirmed with clinical plasma blends diluted into normal plasma. Performance between clinical plasma and contrived samples was established with a contrived sample functional characterization study. Reproducibility was assessed with an interlaboratory reproducibility (ILR) study across 3 different sites with over 500 total replicates. Results: The test demonstrated variant concordance of 93.1% PPA and 99.8% NPA for translocations and 90.1% PPA and 100% NPA for amplifications (excluding borderline calls, 1.2-1.8-fold). Analytical specificity was 100% for both amplifications and translocations. Analytical sensitivity (limit of detection, (LoD) 95%) was assessed for each structural variant on the panel and ranged from 0.41% - 0.49% FRF for translocations and 1.3 - 1.7-fold for amplifications. The ILR study resulted in 96.1% average percent agreement (APA) and 99.6% average negative agreement (ANA) for amplifications and 95.3% APA and 99.5% ANA for translocations. Conclusions: These analytical validation results demonstrate PGDx elio plasma focus Dx detects structural variants with high accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility, supporting the use for precision oncology. Citation Format: Amy Meltzer, Jesse Fox, Kenneth C. Valkenburg, Tonya Watkins, Sonomi Dillon, Pengfei Gu, Ana Perez-Lebron, Robert Summersgill, Annabelle Culi, Nesha Jackson, Stephen Higgins, Kristy Waszkiewicz, Nobel Girmay, James Occean, Cal Palumbo, David Holcomb, Kelly Gerding, David Riley, Sam Angiuoli, Aanavi Karandikar, Rami Zahr, Jennifer Dickey, Eric Severson, Shakti Ramkissoon, Brian Caveney. Deep dive into the performance of structural variants reported by PGDx elio plasma focus Dx [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 6628.

  PublisherDOI

• How Voice Chat, Cooperativeness, and Competitiveness Impact Prosocial and Antisocial Norms in Multiplayer Online Video Games

  Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · 2025-12-22

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Jealousy, threat, and romantic rivals in parasocial romantic relationships.

  Psychology of Popular Media · 2025-02-10 · 2 citations

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  PublisherDOI

• Farewell Editorial

  Integratus · 2025-12-01

  articleSenior author

  In May 2021, Jesse Fox and Robert Kugelmann received emails from Anthony Isacco, asking about our availability to meet with the Catholic Psychotherapy Association's (CPA) taskforce, which was exploring establishing a journal devoted to the integration of the Catholic intellectual traditions and psychotherapy. The CPA had approved a year earlier the setting up of the taskforce. We were invited to be co-editors of the new journal, Integratus. We were inspired by the idea for many reasons. One of the most important had to do with the absence of a journal that had a specific focus on the intersection of Catholicism and applied psychology. We saw the great potential of a peer-reviewed journal that could uncover the psychological treasures within the 2,000-year history of Catholicism and bring them to the surface for all to benefit from, and simultaneously bring them into conversation with modern psychotherapy. While there were and still are many journals now devoted to spirituality, religion, and psychology, this particular way of viewing these topics needed voice. And so the vision of a journal that could delve deeply into these timeless topics took clearer shape.

  PublisherDOI

• From the Editors

  Integratus · 2024-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Integratus is now in its second year. In this first number of Volume 2 of the journal, we have a healthy variety of types of articles. First is a report discussing how the Catholic Psychotherapy Association (CPA) Ethics Code was drafted. The article offers many insights into the making of the Code of Ethics. The authors claim that “The CPA Ethics Code appears to be the only code appropriate to a mental health professional organization that explicitly derives aspirational principles from Catholic faith and morals as well as the natural law.” It is thus a code appropriate to a professional organization and to a professional organization that strives to be Catholic. Moreover, in the making of the code, the boundaries between psychotherapy and spiritual direction were directly addressed. As the code is a living document, when in the future it is revisited, this article will provide some of the background to the current code.

  PublisherDOI

• Romantic relationship initiation and escalation through mobile dating apps: Affordances, modality weaving, and paradoxical beliefs

  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2024-07-23 · 17 citations

  articleSenior author

  Like online dating sites, mobile dating applications are popular technologies for navigating the dating market, whether for seeking romantic relationships or sexual partners. The searching-matching-interacting (SMI) framework describes mate selection in the dating market and how mediated market intermediaries (e.g., dating apps) can aid these functions. We conducted in-depth interviews ( N = 37) to explore dating app use during relationship initiation and relationship escalation, examining the SMI framework. For searching and matching, perceptions of affordances such as visibility, searchability, and locatability governed participants’ selection and use of apps. Examining the interacting function, our findings provide some of the first empirical support for modality weaving during relationship development. Rather than a simple modality switch from app to face-to-face, participants reported integrating multiple interpersonal and masspersonal channels, including social media, texting, and video. Channel transitions were made based on goals (e.g., relationship escalation, verification, uncertainty reduction) and perceived affordances (e.g., synchronicity, editability, bandwidth, accessibility). Notably, participants’ evaluations of the advantages and disadvantages of dating apps revealed several tensions and paradoxes among beliefs and behaviors. These paradoxes indicate why many users may not satisfy interpersonal goals such as hookups or long-term romantic relationships through mobile dating apps. Our findings support the viability of the SMI framework, and we extend its theorizing for studying relationship initiation and relationship development.

  PublisherDOI

• How social media images of sexualized young women elicit appearance commentary from their peers and reinforce objectification

  Body Image · 2024-03-07 · 20 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Abstract 6559: Clinical validity of post-surgery circulating tumor DNA testing in stage III colon cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy: The PROVENC3 study

  Cancer Research · 2024-03-22 · 4 citations

  article

  Abstract Introduction: Surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) is standard of care in stage III colon cancer. However, only 15-20% of patients benefit from ACT, as half of patients are cured by surgery, and 25-30% still experience a recurrence. Detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after resection of the primary tumor is a strong prognostic biomarker in non-metastatic colon cancer and offers a promising approach to better stratify stage III colon cancer patients for ACT treatment decisions. Aim: The PROVENC3 study aims to determine the clinical validity of post-surgery ctDNA detection in patients with stage III colon cancer treated with ACT. Methods: Blood was collected pre-surgery, post-surgery and post-ACT for stage III colon cancer patients treated with ACT. Tumor-informed detection of ctDNA was performed through integrated whole genome sequencing (WGS) analyses of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue DNA (80x), germline DNA (40x), and plasma cell-free DNA (30x). The primary outcome was time to recurrence (TTR). Results: Results from 209 patients (median follow up: 40 months) show that ctDNA-positive patients post-surgery (n=28) had a higher risk of developing a recurrence than ctDNA-negative patients (HR: 6.3, [95%CI: 3.5-11.3], P<10−8). 38% of patients with a recurrence within 3 years were ctDNA-positive post-surgery. Combination of post-surgery ctDNA status with established clinicopathological risk classification of low-risk (T1-3 and N1) and high-risk (T4 and/or N2) resulted in a 3-year cumulative recurrence risk of 82% for clinical high-risk ctDNA-positive patients compared to 7% for clinical low-risk ctDNA-negative patients (HR 28.9 [95%CI: 10.6-78.2]; P<10−10). Results from 170 patients with post-ACT blood available showed that post-ACT ctDNA-positive patients (n=24) were at a higher risk of developing a recurrence (HR 7.9 [95%CI: 3.5-15.9]; P<10−8) than ctDNA-negative patients. The patients experiencing a recurrence had higher aggregate ctDNA variant allele frequencies than patients not experiencing a recurrence post-surgery or post-ACT (P<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Post-surgery ctDNA detection by tumor-informed WGS is a strong prognostic biomarker in stage III colon cancer patients, and improves the current risk stratification. Importantly, the post-surgery ctDNA-positive patients who did not experience a recurrence were likely cured by ACT. These data enable the design of clinical practice-changing ctDNA-guided interventional trials in stage III colon cancer to personalize adjuvant treatment decisions. Citation Format: Carmen Rubio Alarcon, Andrew Georgiadis, Ingrid A. Franken, Haoyue Wang, Sietske C. van Nassau, Suzanna J. Schraa, Dave E. van der Kruijssen, Karlijn van Rooijen, Theodora C. Linders, Pien Delis-van Diemen, Maartje Alkemade, Anne Bolijn, Marianne Tijssen, Margriet Lemmens, Lana Meiqari, Steven L. Ketelaars, Adria Closa Mosquera, Miranda M. van Dongen, Mirthe Lanfermeijer, Birgit I. Lissenberg-Witte, Linda J. Bosch, Teunise Bisschop-Snetselaar, Bregje Adriaans, Amy Greer, David Riley, James R. White, Christopher Greco, Liam Cox, Jesse Fox, Kaitlin Victor, Catherine Leech, Samuel V. Angiuoli, Niels F. Kok, Cornelis J. Punt, Daan van den Broek, Miriam Koopman, Gerrit A. Meijer, Victor E. Velculescu, Jeanine M. Roodhart, Veerle M. Coupé, Mark Sausen, Geraldine R. Vink, Remond J. Fijneman. Clinical validity of post-surgery circulating tumor DNA testing in stage III colon cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy: The PROVENC3 study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6559.

  PublisherDOI

• Technology, relationships, and well-being: An overview of critical research issues and an introduction to the special issue

  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2024-03-06 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Technology, relationships, and well-being represent three influential parts of our daily lives. They also represent a common area of research for scholars in a variety of disciplines. Here, we offer guidance for researchers interested in studying the connections among these issues and introduce the special issue in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships focused on the confluence of these topics. We take each issue in turn, along with their interconnections, and describe some common pitfalls along with ideas to advance research in these areas. After analyzing the body of research on technology, relationships, and well-being, we present the special issue. We explain how our analysis of this body of research along with obstacles we encountered conducting research in this area shaped our approach to the issue. For the edification of future editors, we briefly reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our atypical editorial process before presenting the articles that compose this issue.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kristine L. Nowak

  38 shared

• Jeremy N. Bailenson

  Stanford University

  15 shared

• Sun Joo Ahn

  University of Georgia

  10 shared

• Joseph A. Stewart‐Sicking

  Loyola University Maryland

  8 shared

• Paul J. Deal

  8 shared

• Wai Yen Tang

  University of Münster

  7 shared

• Robert Kugelmann

  University of Dallas

  6 shared

• Katie M. Warber

  6 shared

Education

• M.A., Ph.D., Communication

  Stanford University

  2010

• M.A., Communication

  University of Arizona

  2006

• B.A., B.A., Communication, English

  University of Kentucky

  2000