Arunima Krishna

Arunima Krishna, PhD is an associate professor of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at Boston University College of Communication. She joined Boston University College of Communication in 2016 after completing her PhD at Purdue University. Dr. Krishna’s research focuses on understanding public perceptions of controversial social issues. Drawing from communication, public relations, business, and social psychology literatures, her scholarship explores how publics respond to and communicate about controversy-causing social problems, as well as factors shaping their perceptions of such issues. The situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) forms a foundational theoretical framework in her scholarship, and her work has helped advance communication theory by integrating the STOPS with consumer and social psychology literature, social identity theory, and narrative persuasion scholarship. Her research so far has focused on two broad categories of controversial social issues: (1) issues stemming from questions related to science and the veracity of scientific fact, including climate change denial and vaccine hesitancy, and (2) issues stemming from questions of morality and justice, such as workplace discrimination and corporate misconduct.

Most recently, Dr. Krishna developed the typology of misinformation-susceptible publics, a theoretically grounded classification of publics based on their susceptibility to mis- and disinformation efforts. Based on their issue-specific motivation, attitudes, and knowledge, Dr. Krishna proposed that individuals could be classified into one of four groups:

• Misinformation-immune publics, or those most likely to reject and refute misinformation
• Misinformation-vulnerable publics, or those at moderate risk of accepting misinformation
• Misinformation-receptive publics, or those at high risk of accepting misinformation
• Misinformation-amplifying publics, or those who not only are highly likely to accept misinformation, they also are likely actively share and promote misinformation about the specific topic in question.

Dr. Krishna serves as a senior editor for Health Communication, associate director for Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability, and on the Advisory Committee for the International Public Relations Research Conference.

Dr. Krishna teaches a variety of courses at COM, including CM313 Corporate Communication, CM522 Crisis Management and Communication, and CO101 The World of Communication. In addition to these COM courses, Dr. Krishna has also taught KHC401 Epistemologies and the Process of Inquiry in the Kilachand Honors College.

Select Publications

Krishna, A. (in press). Relationships and identity: Understanding antecedents of employees’ megaphoning behaviors in response to allegations of corporate misconduct. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12460

Krishna, A. (in press). Employee-organization identity fusion: Connecting leadership and symmetrical internal communication to identity- and engagement-related outcomes. International Journal of Business Communication, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294884221130744

Krishna, A. & Amazeen, M. A. (2022). Narrative counters: Understanding the efficacy of narratives in combating anecdote-based vaccine misinformation. Public Relations Review, 48, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102251

Krishna, A. & Kim, S. (2022). Understanding customers’ reactions to allegations of corporate environmental irresponsibility. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 99, 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699020958756

Krishna, A. & Kim, S. (2021). Exploring the dynamics between brand investment, customer investment, brand identification and brand identity fusion. Journal of Business Research, 137, 267–277.

Krishna, A. (2021). Lacuna publics: Advancing a typology of disinformation susceptibility using the motivation-attitude-knowledge framework. Journal of Public Relations Research, 63–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2021.1944155

Krishna, A. & Thompson, T. (2021). Misinformation about health: A review of health communication and misinformation scholarship. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 316–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219878223