Four decades of biological measurement advancing mediated communication theory: a review of literature from 1980–2020

A corpus of 135 peer-reviewed articles from 1980–2020 in, Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Communication, Media Psychology, and Journal of Media Psychology were identified that present data from biological measures (EEG, fMRI, eye-tracking, ECG, EDA, fEMG). Qualitative analysis uncovered seven key theories in the field that have been advanced using data from these measures: (1) desensitization, (2) selective exposure, (3) general aggression model (GAM), (4) excitation transfer, (5) theories about absorption (presence, flow, and narrative engagement), (6) theories of limited cognitive capacity (LC3MP and LC4MP), and (7) virality and message effectiveness.