Matea Mustafaj is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on how narrative and entertainment media shape social cognition, beliefs, and psychological well-being. Grounded in media psychology and communication theory, her work investigates how stories function as simulations of experience, inviting audiences to adopt new perspectives, imagine different social realities, and reevaluate what they believe about the world. 

Her work examines both the prosocial potential of media, such as fostering empathy, reducing prejudice, and supporting well-being, as well as the ways it can reinforce bias, disengagement, or harmful norms. She is especially interested in the mechanisms through which character engagement and narrative structure contribte to belief change and shifts in worldview. 

While much of her research centers on narrative entertainment, she also explores how other forms of media contirubte to meaning-making, emotional processing, and how people understand and relate to others in society.

Ph.D. Communication and Media. Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

B.S. Neuroscience, Psychology, Philosphy. College of Literature, Science, & the Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA