2026 Kenneth A. Lachlan: Social Sciences and Humanities Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Social Sciences and Humanities	37	6174	5734	2952	2691	143	7544

Overview

Kenneth A. Lachlan is affiliated with the University of Connecticut in the United States. Their research is primarily situated within the social sciences, with a focus on areas including sociology and political science, communication, social psychology, literature and literary theory, and education.

The scholar has made significant contributions to topics such as:

Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Disaster Management and Resilience
Risk Perception and Management
Misinformation and Its Impacts
Communication in Education and Healthcare
Media Influence and Health
Media Studies and Communication

Frequently collaborating with other researchers, Lachlan's notable coauthors include Patric R. Spence, Christine Gilbert, Emily Hutter, Xialing Lin, and Renee Kaufmann. These collaborations have supported a productive research output in various academic venues.

The most common publication venues for the researcher's work are:

Communication Studies
Journal of Emergency Management
Progress in Disaster Science
Communication Education
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Selected recent papers by Kenneth A. Lachlan include:

"From what I've heard, this is bad: An examination of Americans' source preferences and information seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic" (2021) published in Progress in Disaster Science
"COVID-19 Echo Chambers: Examining the Impact of Conservative and Liberal News Sources on Risk Perception and Response" (2021) published in Health Security

Other relevant papers linked to their research themes include:

"Needing to know about the crisis back home: Disaster information seeking and disaster media effects following the 2015 Nepal earthquake among Nepalis living outside of Nepal" (2020) published in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
"The climate change risk perception model in the United States: A replication study" (2023) published in Journal of Environmental Psychology
"Listen up, I've done this before: The impact of self-disclosure on source credibility and risk message responses" (2020) published in Progress in Disaster Science

The researcher's work spans an interdisciplinary blend of social sciences and communication, strongly emphasizing public response and media influences during crises and disasters. This body of work provides insight into how information is sought and processed during emergencies, the role of media in shaping risk perceptions, and the effects of misinformation on public health and safety.

Best Publications

Video Game Uses and Gratifications as Predicators of Use and Game Preference.

John L. Sherry;Bradley S. Greenberg;Kristen Lucas;Ken Lachlan

1108
Citations
Orientations to Video Games Among Gender and Age Groups

Bradley S. Greenberg;John Sherry;Kenneth Lachlan;Kristen Lucas

634
Citations
Portrayals of Overweight and Obese Individuals on Commercial Television

Bradley S. Greenberg;Matthew Eastin;Linda Hofschire;Ken Lachlan

589
Citations
Popular video games: Quantifying the presentation of violence and its context

Stacy L. Smith;Kenneth A. Lachlan;Ron Tamborini

408
Citations
Crisis Communication, Race, and Natural Disasters

Patric R. Spence;Kenneth A. Lachlan;Donyale R. Griffin

312
Citations
Social media and crisis management

Kenneth A. Lachlan;Patric R. Spence;Xialing Lin;Kristy Najarian

280
Citations
Variability in Twitter Content Across the Stages of a Natural Disaster: Implications for Crisis Communication

Patric R. Spence;Kenneth A. Lachlan;Xialing Lin;Maria del Greco

258
Citations
Social media and credibility indicators: The effect of influence cues

Xialing Lin;Patric R. Spence;Kenneth A. Lachlan

226
Citations
Violent Virtual Video Games and Hostile Thoughts

Ron Tamborini;Matthew S. Eastin;Paul Skalski;Kenneth Lachlan

202
Citations
Crisis communication, learning and responding

Xialing Lin;Patric R. Spence;Timothy L. Sellnow;Kenneth A. Lachlan

197
Citations
Exploring extreme events on social media

Xialing Lin;Kenneth A. Lachlan;Patric R. Spence

147
Citations
Expressions of risk awareness and concern through Twitter: On the utility of using the medium as an indication of audience needs

Kenneth A. Lachlan;Patric R. Spence;Xialing Lin

144
Citations
Media use and information needs of the disabled during a natural disaster

Patric R Spence;Kenneth Lachlan;Jennifer A Burke;Matthew W. Seeger

142
Citations
Screaming into the Wind: Examining the Volume and Content of Tweets Associated with Hurricane Sandy

Kenneth A. Lachlan;Patric R. Spence;Xialing Lin;Maria Del Greco

141
Citations
Straight talk about communication research methods

Christine S. Davis;Heather Powell Gallardo;Kenneth A. Lachlan

121
Citations
Terrorist attacks and uncertainty reduction: Media use after September 11

Kenneth A. Lachlan;Patric R. Spence;Matthew Seeger

119
Citations
ADJUSTING TO UNCERTAINTY: COPING STRATEGIES AMONG THE DISPLACED AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA

Patric R. Spence;Kenneth A. Lachlan;Jennifer M. Burke

116
Citations
Where the Gates Matter Less: Ethnicity and Perceived Source Credibility in Social Media Health Messages

Patric R. Spence;Kenneth A. Lachlan;David Westerman;Stephen A. Spates

113
Citations
The Influence of Morality Subcultures on the Acceptance and Appeal of Violence

Ron Tamborini;Allison Eden;Nicholas David Bowman;Matthew Grizzard

108
Citations
Comparing Survey and Diary Measures of Internet and Traditional Media Use

Bradley S. Greenberg;Matthew S. Eastin;Paul Skalski;Len Cooper

101
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Patric R. Spence University of Central Florida

Timothy L. Sellnow University of Central Florida

Ron Tamborini Michigan State University

Matthew S. Eastin The University of Texas at Austin

Bradley S. Greenberg Michigan State University

Marina Krcmar Wake Forest University

Barbara Wilson University of Virginia

Timothy R. Levine University of Oklahoma

Carolyn A. Lin University of Connecticut

Kelly D. Brownell Duke University

External Links

Personal website of Kenneth A. Lachlan Google Scholar page

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