Professor Davis’ scholarship examines aspects of human communication in interpersonal, organizational, and health communication contexts. He has published: a theory of relational communication; analyses of torture and deception’s roles in military, law enforcement and intelligence interviews, as well as work on polygraphs; social loafing in Malaysian, Japan and the United States; and co-edited a recent book on the communication of mental health. He is currently editing a small group communication reader. His most popular research topic is the neuroscience of chocolate, and how health-related information gets communicated.
In the classroom, Dr. Davis encourages critical thinking and mastering course content that interests students. He then creates situations where students take that mastery to more deeply understand the remainder of the course content, other courses they are taking/have taken, and use that understanding to take them where they want to go professionally in life.