The Research Center in Communication Psychology was founded in 1996 by Luigi Anolli, of which he was also the first director. A pioneer of this discipline in Italy, Anolli advanced the knowledge of nonverbal communication and discommunication by adopting a multidisciplinary approach based on the conviction, passed on to his students, that the complexity of communication requires to address this process from a multidisciplinary perspective.
The heuristic efficacy of this "integrated" approach is evidenced by Rita Ciceri's research, which focused on the study of the vocal expression of human emotions - a topic to which Father Gemelli himself had devoted his latest research.
Carlo Galimberti's research also moves in the direction of a transdisciplinary openness, focusing, in particular, on the relationship between communication and conversation. One of the main outcomes of this work has been the development of an integrated approach to the study of communicative interaction in face-to-face and mediated contexts called the "model of enunciative intersubjectivity," which represents communication as an interactive event in which interlocutors actively collaborate in the production of meanings.
The relational dimension of communication was also the hallmark of Fabiana Gatti, who applied this approach in different areas, ranging from cultures of use of new technologies to the promotion of health and safety in the workplace.
With the emergence of the Internet, the Center has intensified its focus on mediated communication phenomena, activating several fruitful lines of research.
In this area, Giuseppe Riva's contribution stands out, focusing on the development of new media psychology (or "Cyberpsychology") as a specific discipline, analyzing in particular the role of new interactive technologies in promoting personal change.
Andrea Gaggioli further elaborated the dialogue between the analysis of communicative experience and the design of digital artifacts, contributing to the development of "user experience" as an interdisciplinary area of research at the frontier between psychology, technology and design.