Sejal Patel

Graduate Student 

Sejal Patel is a Ph.D. student studying Intercultural Communication and Social Influence & Persuasion in the Communication Department at the University of Maryland. She received her M.A. and B.A. degrees from Rutgers University. Sejal is interested in the concept of trust within culture from an emic perspective. Her research interests also include information seeking behaviors and the implications of these behaviors on health-related decision making processes across cultures. Some of her current work with the Center for Risk Communication includes an eye-tracking study that will test how individuals use nutrition labels and peripheral cues on product packaging to assess healthy food choices, as well as an extension study of the Risk Perception Attitude (RPA) framework to predict information seeking behavior and knowledge retention based on varying levels of perceived risk and self-efficacy about skin cancer and financial security.