Dr. Arpan’s work examines audience responses to non-commercial persuasive messages and risk information. Her areas of emphasis include: responses to pro-environmental and health-promotion messages, especially the examination of message factors that can mitigate rejection of such messages; the influence of existing attitudes and psychological motivations (e.g., motivated reasoning) on responses to health and environmental risk messages; and multi-disciplinary approaches to predicting energy-related behaviors and adoption of sustainable energy sources and technologies.