Erica Rosenthal, Ph.D. is the Director of Research at the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California. Her passion is for understanding HOW and WHY stories – particularly in media and entertainment — are so effective at challenging preconceptions, moving people to action, and generating lasting culture change.

Since 2019, she has led a portfolio of research addressing a wide range of health and social justice issues, including health equity, climate change, immigration, mental health, and representations of historically-excluded communities. Her work examines the content of media and entertainment narratives, the audiences who consume these narratives, and their impact on audiences’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. From 2011-2019, she led research for the Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society program.

Dr. Rosenthal has received funding from federal and state government agencies, philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and media corporations, and is a frequent speaker on the power of storytelling. She has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where her research focused on emotional responses to media messages and the central role of trust.