Benjamin E. Custer, Ph.D.
Research Areas
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Benjamin E. Custer (PhD, University of Arizona, 2020) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the American University in Bulgaria. Before this position, he lived and worked in Bulgaria as a two-time Fulbright grantee (2021-2022, 2022-2023). In 2019, he won UArizona’s Department of Communication Excellence in Teaching Award and Kory Floyd Graduate Fellowship in Interpersonal Relations. He is also the recipient of a Top Four Paper Award (2020) from the National Communication Association’s Interpersonal Communication Division and a Top Debut Paper Award (2018) from the Western States Communication Association’s Media Studies Interest Group.
Research Interests
- Interpersonal communication
- Mass communication
- Social psychology
- Evolutionary psychology
Dissertation Title
Bad boys, bad boys, who’s gotta thing for you?: Examining the sexual appeal of the bad boy archetype
Selected Publications
Floyd, K., Woo, N. T., Custer, B. E., Dinsmore, D. R., Duncan, K., & Maré, J. (2022). Examining the social signaling and person perception functions of loneliness, OBM Neurobiology, 6(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202119
Hesse, C., Floyd, K., Rains, S. R., Mikkelson, A. C., Pauley, P. M., Woo, N. T., Custer, B. E., & Duncan, K. (2021). Affectionate communication and health: A meta-analysis. Communication Monographs, 88(2) 194-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2020.1805480
Lapierre, M. A., & Custer, B. E. (2021). Testing relationships between smartphone engagement, romantic partner communication, and relationship satisfaction. Mobile Media & Communication, 9(2), 155-176. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920935163
Floyd, K., & Custer, B. E. (2020). Affection exchange theory. In J. Nussbaum (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of communication. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.937
Floyd, K., Woo, N. T., & Custer, B. E. (2020). The biology of affectionate communication. In K. Floyd, & R. Weber (Eds.), The handbook of communication science and biology (pp. 308-318). Routledge.
Floyd, K., Matheny, R., Dinsmore, D. R., Custer, B. E., & Woo, N. T. (2019). “If you disagree, unfriend me now”: Exploring the phenomenon of invited unfriending. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 7(1), 20-29. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajap-7-1-3
Lapierre, M. A., Zhao, P., & Custer, B. E. (2019). Short-term longitudinal relationships between smartphone use/dependency and psychological well-being among late adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 65(5), 607-612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.06.001
Custer, B. (2014). STEM from the humanities: How visual arts, empathy and storytelling fuel innovation. Peninsula Press, A Project of the Stanford Graduate Program in Journalism. Later featured on SFGate.
Degree(s)
- PhD (2020) Communication, University of Arizona
- M.A. (2014) Communication, Stanford University
- B.S. (2011) Mass Communications, Texas A&M University-Texarkana