How does the balance between text and pictorial content in marketer-generated social media posts affect user engagement? The authors address this question by using computer vision and natural language processing tools to extract the visual and textual features of 34,610 organic brand posts from Facebook and Instagram. Using a Confounding-and-Cluster-Robust Causal Forests model, they test how the balance of text and picture affects social media engagement across content and visual contexts. Results show that posts with greater emphasis on overlay text over pictorial content tend to have fewer likes and comments. However, the performance of text-oriented posts improves if text is more centered, informative, emotionally positive, and congruent with the pictorial content, and if the picture contains fewer prominent objects or less information such as social cues. They quantify how incremental changes in such content composition affect social media engagement. These findings set forth evidence-based principles for optimizing text and picture balance in marketer-generated content (MGC) and provide actionable guidelines on whether, where, when, and how to present text on an image. This research highlights the potential for transforming content and media creation from an imprecise art form into an empirical science nested within a data-driven visual optimization framework.

- B.A. Economics, Yale University 2008
- Ph.D. Marketing, Stanford University Graduate School of Business 2013
Prof. Jayson Shi Jia conducts interdisciplinary research in the areas of consumer behavior, behavioral science, and computational social science, with a focus on decision making, information processing, and social dynamics in digital and risk contexts. In recent years, Prof. Jia has published research examining how consumers process visual information in digital marketing, how people respond to uncertainty and risk, and the overlapping relationship between social networks, physical mobility, and technology. His multi-methods approach to research includes conducting online and lab experiments, quasi-experiments, and using large-scale mobile phone data. His ongoing research explores how new AI and digital marketing technologies affect how people process and understand information.
Prof. Jia has published research in top-tier basic science, psychology, and business journals including Nature, Nature Communications, Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. His work has received media coverage from outlets including Business Insider, BBC, The Guardian, Psychology Today, Stanford Business Magazine, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Review, MSN, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Scientific American, People’s Daily, Xinhua, and Jinri Toutiao. Prof. Jia collaborates extensively with major technology, retail, finance, and MarTech companies and sits on the Economic Policy Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
- MSMK7004 Digital Marketing (MSc Marketing core)
- PMBA6117 Digital Marketing Strategy (MBA elective)
- MKTG6004 Digital Methods for Human Behaviour Research (PhD)
- Yunlu Yin, Xiangnan Feng, Zihe Chen, Jayson S. Jia (2026). Digital Behaviors Signal Consumer Well-being: A Factor-Augmented Regularized Prediction Model Approach. Forthcoming at International Journal of Research in Marketing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167811625001314
- Chu Dang, Man Ching Kwan, Jayson S. Jia, Yang Shi (2025). When Words Meet Visuals: How Content Composition Drives Social Media Engagement for Marketer-Generated Content. Journal of Marketing Research, 63(1), 167-190. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222437251373042
- Yunlu Yin, Jayson S. Jia, Wanyi Zheng (2021). The Effect of Slow Motion Video on Consumer Inference. Journal of Marketing Research, 58(5), 1007-1024.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222437211025054 - Jayson S. Jia, Yiwei Li, Xin Lu, Yijian Ning, Nicholas A. Christakis, Jianmin Jia (2021). Triadic Embeddedness Structure in Family Networks Predicts Mobile Communication Response to a Sudden Natural Disaster. Nature Communications, 12, 4286.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24606-7 - Daniella Kupor, Jayson S. Jia, Zakary Tormala (2021). Change Appeals: How Referencing Change Boosts Curiosity and Promotes Persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(5), 691-704.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167220941294 - Jayson S. Jia, Xin Lu, Yun Yuan, Ge Xu, Jianmin Jia, Nicholas A. Christakis (2020). Population Flow Drives Spatio-Temporal Distribution of COVID-19 in China. Nature, 582, 389-394.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2284-y - Jia, Jayson S., Jianmin Jia, Christopher K. Hsee, Baba Shiv (2017). The Role of Hedonic Behavior in Reducing Perceived Risk: Evidence From Postearthquake Mobile-App Data. Psychological Science, 28(1), 23-35.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797616671712 - Jia, Jayson S., Uzma Khan, Ab Litt (2015). The Effect of Self-Control on the Construction of Risk Perceptions. Management Science, 61(9), 2259-2280.
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2098 - Jia, Jayson S., Baba Shiv, Sanjay Rao (2014). The Product-Agnosia Effect: How More Visual Impressions Affect Product Distinctiveness in Comparative Choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(2), 342-360.
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/41/2/342/2907558 - Dai, Xianchi, Ping Dong, Jayson S. Jia (2014). When Does Playing Hard to Get Increase Romantic Attraction? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 521-526.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-15983-001 - Tormala, Zakary L., Jayson S. Jia, Michael I. Norton (2012). The Preference for Potential. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(4), 567-583.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-18069-001
- “Flocking predicts population displacement patterns at the outbreak of war in Ukraine”, Zhepeng Li, Xinyue Luo, Tuan Q. Phan*, Jayson S. Jia* corresponding authors
- “First-come-first-serve versus Lotteries in Digital Drops”, Jayson S. Jia, Jiajia Liu
- “The Exposure Paradox of Networked Risks”, Jayson S. Jia, Jiajia Liu
- “Physical Mobility and Risk in Digital Consumption”, Jayson S. Jia, Yun Yuan
- “The Impact of Previews on the Enjoyment of Multi-component Extended Multimedia Experiences”, Jayson S. Jia, Yunlu Yin, Baba Shiv
- “Advertising Amnesia: Seeing but not Remembering Serially Presented Visual Marketing”, Yunlu Yin, Jayson S. Jia
- “Inequality and Social Constraints on Human Mobility Gains from Transportation Technology”, Jayson S. Jia, Yiwei Lee, Yijian Ning, Nicholas Christakis, Jianmin Jia
- “Risk perception and behavior change after personal vaccination for COVID-19 in the USA”, Jayson S. Jia, Yun Yuan, Jianmin Jia, Nicholas A. Christakis
- “The Social Characteristics Driving Mobile Social Response to Strangers”, Jayson S. Jia, Xianchi Dai, Jianmin Jia, MSI Working Paper # 2020, 20-108
https://www.msi.org/reports/the-social-characteristics-driving-mobile-response-to-strangers/
- “Consumer Behavior and Risk Analysis Based on Big Data”, 2024 优秀青年科学基金项目, NSFC, #72422010, HK$2,000,000, 1/2025-12/2027, Principal Investigator
- “Leveraging Mobility and Digital Trace Big Data to Model COVID-19 Risk and Socio-Economic Recovery”, Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) / One-off CRF Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and Novel Infectious Disease (NID) Research Exercise, Earmarked Research Grant #C7105-20G, the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, HK$4,533,112, 3/2021-1/2024, Project Coordinator and Principal Investigator
- “Field Studies on Phishing Susceptibility in Mobile Social Networks”, Earmarked Research Grant #14505217, the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, HK$748,071, 9/2017-8/2019, Principal Investigator
- “Hedonic combinatorics: How combining unrelated products affects product enjoyment”, Earmarked Research Grant #17506316, Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, HK$969,240, 1/2017-7/2019, Principal Investigator
- “The Taste of a Good Deal: How Transactional Utility Affects Experiential Utility”, Earmarked Research Grant #27500114, Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, HK$569,600, 9/2014-12/2016, Principal Investigator
- 2022 First Class Award of Science and Technology Progress Award of Shenzhen (2022年度深圳市科技进步奖一等奖)
- INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award – Semi-Finalist 2022
- 2019 MSI Young Scholar, Marketing Science Institute
- 2012 Alden G. Clayton Doctoral Dissertation Award (Sole Winner), Marketing Science Institute
港大经管学院市场学副教授贾轼教授认为,瑞幸能顺应全球经济环境,以性价比取胜,并且以折扣优惠为顾客带来“游戏化”的愉悦感,以及追求高效率,薄利润的营运方式,是它能于全球迅速扩张,蚕食星巴克海外份额的关键。
2023年刚结束的兔年春节内地民众过得怎样?调查显示,兔年春节期间,民众的幸福感平均值为5.47,介于“比较开心”与“开心”之间(1为最低值,7为最高值),“比较开心”以上人群占比为83.1%。
香港大學港大經管學院市場學副教授賈軾與其他學者組成的研究團隊,日前開展一項全國問卷調查,有關內地民眾的春節幸福感和疫情感知風險。
虎年春節前後,新冠疫情在内地多個城市再度爆發,「就地過年」也再次成為人們春節的選項。香港大學副教授賈軾、香港中文大學(深圳)教授賈建民、清華大學教授薛瀾和博士生袁韻等組成的研究團隊再次開展《春節幸福感與疫情應對行為》的全國性問卷調查。研究團隊於春節前、後通過內地的調研平臺Credamo對同一群體開展兩次調查,分別收集問卷3500份和3016份,樣本來自全國256個城市,年齡段以20-50歲有春節探親需要的群體為主,覆蓋各類社會群體與收入階層。
虎年春节前后,新冠疫情在多个城市再度爆发,「就地过年」也再次成为人们春节的选项。香港中文大学(深圳)研究团队开展的针对以20-50岁有春节探亲需要的群体的「春节幸福感与疫情应对行为」的全国性问卷调查显示,虎年 「就地过年」与「返乡探亲过年」民众的春节幸福感相同
在视频行销研究中,我们重点关注了速度线索这一视频行销常用的优化手段,即行销管理者、广告设计者通常会通过改变视频广告中代言人的动作速度来试图影响消费者对产品的感知。我们发现,视频广告中应用慢动作技术反而会降低行销手段的说服力,并且该效应的心理与认知机制是消费者所产生的意图性感知(Perception of intentionality),即消费者认为代言人的慢速的代言行为不是自发而是 “故意的”。该研究同时采用了认知科学的眼动分析(Eye-tracking)方法印证了该结论。综上,该研究发展和完善了消费者视觉处理与心理机制的理论,为研究消费者在新媒体环境下的行为机制提供新的视角。
The creative industries like art, film, and theater have suffered during the pandemic. But could digital transformation mean innovative, new business models save the arts? As industries that rely on delivering physical experiences to generate income, the coronavirus pandemic hit creative sectors like art, theater, and film worse than most.
小额商品也能分期付款、与商家、各个网购平台无缝衔接.....「BNPL」(Buy Now Pay Later,先买后付)这一新的消费模式可谓为新一代年轻人量身打造,让原本让人望而却步的产品只需轻点几下屏幕便「触手可及」。可是,这种新兴消费模式下,年轻人的销售习惯和财务将会如何受到影响?
港大经管学院市场学副教授贾轼教授所带领的研究团队近日在国际顶级期刊《自然*通讯》发表研究论文,通过流动数据分析人们在应急情况下与家庭和朋友的通讯行为。




