Current Projects in the HMC Lab
Current work:
Lab director, Dr. Cameron Piercy, is currently co-editing with Dr. Alaina Zanin (Arizona State) a book called Teaming with Machines, under contract with Wiley-Blackwell.
At weekly lab meetings, members are working on extending Social Exchange Theory to Sociotechnical Exchange Theory. Find our initial theorizing here: https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.10.3
KU Emerging Scholars, KU COMS PhD students, and Lab directors are working on several projects advancing communication theory applications in HMC. If you are interested in joining, email Lab Director, Dr. Cameron Piercy (cpiercy@ku.edu).
Check out our existing publications here:
Publications
- Piercy, C. W., & Turner-Leatherman, R. (2025). https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.10.1.3 Socio-technical exchange with machines: Worker experiences with complex work technologies . Human-Machine Communication, 10(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.10.1.3DOI: 10.30658/hmc.10.1.3
- Piercy, C. W., & Lee, S. K. (2020). https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/30852 Reconsidering ties: The sociotechnical job search network . International Journal of Business Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488420965680DOI: 10.1177/2329488420965680
- Piercy, C. W., & Zhu, Y. (2020). https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/30854 Transactive memory and the job search: Finding expertise and influence in socio-technical networks . Western Journal of Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2020.1761994
- Piercy, C. W., & Lee, S. K. (2019). https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/27630 A typology of job search sources: Exploring the changing nature of job search behavior . New Media & Society, 21, 1173–1191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818808071
- Piercy, C. W., & Gist-Mackey, A. N. (2021). Automation anxieties: Perceptions about technological automation and the future of pharmacy work. Human-Machine Communication, 2, 191–208. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.2.10
- Alhammad, A., Etheridge, C., & Piercy, C. W. (2025). Credibility and organizational reputation perceptions of news releases produced by artificial intelligence. Corporate Communications: An International Journal.https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-03-2024-0048
- Carr, C. T., Hayes, R. A., & Piercy, C. W. (2023). “Posts are my own”: Effects of social media disclaimers on perceptions of employees and their organizations. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 28(5), 724–743. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-06-2022-0058
- Yoon, K., Piercy, C. W., Kim, Y. G., & Zhu, Y. (2023). Boundary work and transactive memory systems in teams: Moderating effects of the visibility affordance. Management Communication Quarterly.https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189231192078
- Forthcoming: Baumler, R., & Piercy, C. W. (in press). Who’s the fairest of them all: An experiment testing how source, outcome, and process description affect perceived fairness in hiring decisions. Media Psychology.https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2546113
- Lee, S. K., & Sun, J. (2023). Testing a theoretical model of trust in human-machine communication: Emotional experience and social presence. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(16), 2754–2767. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2145998
- Zhang, X., Lee, S. K., Maeng, H., & Hahn, S. (2023). Effects of failure types on trust repairs in human–robot interactions. International Journal of Social Robotics, 15(9), 1619–1635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01059-0
- Zhang, X., Lee, S. K., Kim, W., & Hahn, S. (2023). “Sorry, it was my fault”: Repairing trust in human-robot interactions. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 175, 103031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103031
- Zhang, X., & Lee, S. K. (2024). “Sorry, I don’t understand…”: Effects of task type, personality presentation and performance error on user trust of a personal digital assistant. Information Technology & People, 37(8), 154–174. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-01-2022-0058
- Lee, S. K., Park, H., & Kim, S. Y. (2024). Gender and task effects of human–machine communication on trusting a Korean intelligent virtual assistant. Behaviour & Information Technology.https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2306136
- Piercy, C. W., Montgomery-Vestecka, G., & Lee, S. K. (2025). Gender and accent stereotypes in communication with an intelligent virtual assistant. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 195, 103407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103407
- Edwards, C., Edwards, A., Rijhwani, V., Mostafa, H. K., Ebo, D., & Doku, D. (2025). Beauty and the bot: Perceptions of human and AI fitness influencers on Instagram. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 41, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2558025
- Lee, S. K., Kavya, P., & Lasser, S. (2021). Social interactions and relationships with an intelligent virtual agent. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 150, 102608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102608
- Forthcoming: Baumler, R., Palomares, N. A., & Piercy, C. W. (in press). Exploring gender identity cues in email signature blocks: An experimental study. Psychology of Language and Communication.