World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
40
Citations
7448
World Ranking
5336
National Ranking
2522

Overview

Patric R. Spence is affiliated with the University of Central Florida in the United States and specializes in social sciences with a strong focus on communication.

Their research covers a range of subfields including communication, sociology and political science, social psychology, artificial intelligence, and literature and literary theory.

Key topics in their work include public relations and crisis communication, disaster management and resilience, communication in education and healthcare, AI in service interactions, misinformation and its impacts, risk perception and management, and media influence and health.

Patric R. Spence has published extensively, with notable papers such as:

  • "I-It, I-Thou, I-Robot: The Perceived Humanness of AI in Human-Machine Communication" (2020, Communication Studies)
  • "Understanding crisis communication on social media with CERC: topic model analysis of tweets about Hurricane Maria" (2020, Journal of Risk Research)
  • "Interpersonal impressions of a social robot versus human in the context of performance evaluations" (2020, Communication Education)
  • "From what I've heard, this is bad: An examination of Americans' source preferences and information seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic" (2021, Progress in Disaster Science)
  • "Challenges and Best Practices Associated with Sharing Research Materials and Research Data for Communication Scholars" (2020, Communication Studies)

The frequent coauthors collaborating with Patric R. Spence include Kenneth A. Lachlan, Xialing Lin, Emily Hutter, Christine Gilbert, and Renee Kaufmann.

The research contributions are published predominantly in venues such as Communication Studies, Communication Education, Progress in Disaster Science, Journal of Emergency Management, and Human-Machine Communication.

Best Publications

  • Social Media as Information Source: Recency of Updates and Credibility of Information

    David Westerman;Patric R. Spence;Brandon Van Der Heide

  • A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on Twitter

    David Westerman;Patric R. Spence;Brandon Van Der Heide

  • Is that a bot running the social media feed? Testing the differences in perceptions of communication quality for a human agent and a bot agent on Twitter

    Chad Edwards;Autumn Edwards;Patric R. Spence;Ashleigh K. Shelton

  • Crisis Communication, Race, and Natural Disasters

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

  • Social media and crisis management

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

  • 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

  • Social media and credibility indicators: The effect of influence cues

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

  • Crisis communication, learning and responding

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

  • Initial expectations, interactions, and beyond with social robots

    Autumn Edwards;Chad Edwards;David Westerman;Patric R. Spence

  • Welcoming Our Robot Overlords: Initial Expectations About Interaction With a Robot

    Patric R. Spence;David Westerman;Chad Edwards;Autumn Edwards

  • Robots in the classroom

    Autumn Edwards;Chad Edwards;Patric R. Spence;Christina Harris

  • Initial Interaction Expectations with Robots: Testing the Human-To-Human Interaction Script

    Chad Edwards;Autumn Edwards;Patric R. Spence;David Westerman

  • I, teacher: using artificial intelligence (AI) and social robots in communication and instruction*

    Chad Edwards;Autumn Edwards;Patric R. Spence;Xialing Lin

  • How much Klout do you have. . .A test of system generated cues on source credibility

    Chad Edwards;Patric R. Spence;Christina J. Gentile;America Edwards

  • Exploring extreme events on social media

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

  • 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

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

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

  • 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

  • Gender and Age Effects on Information-Seeking after 9/11

    Patric R. Spence;David Westerman;Paul D. Skalski;Matthew Seeger

  • Terrorist attacks and uncertainty reduction: Media use after September 11

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

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

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

Frequent Co-Authors

Kenneth A. Lachlan
Kenneth A. Lachlan University of Connecticut
Timothy L. Sellnow
Timothy L. Sellnow University of Central Florida
Lucile M. Jones
Lucile M. Jones United States Geological Survey
Seth C. Lewis
Seth C. Lewis University of Oregon

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