Vaping
Conditions
Brief summary
Adolescents (N = 700) participated in the online survey-based randomized experiment focused on understanding youth perceptions of e-cigarette influencer marketing on social media. Specifically, the study assessed how age appearance of social media influencers, fitness-related contextual framing of e-cigarette content, and perceived influencer credibility jointly shape adolescent harm perceptions, appeal, and susceptibility to e-cigarette use. Participants were randomly shown 6 videos, featuring younger- or older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes in the following experimental conditions: 1) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 1); 2) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 2); 3) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content; and 4) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest). Among all participants, harm perceptions and appeal of e-cigarettes was also assessed. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was assessed among never users of e-cigarettes.
Detailed description
Adolescents (14-17 years of age) living in California were recruited by Qualtrics marketing research panel to participate in a survey on tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Qualtrics, a research panel agency, has been used in prior research to survey adolescents about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants were provided with a survey URL link. After completing informed consent, participants completed the survey online. The study was approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board (UP-CG-24-00013). Respondents were randomly assigned to watch six 10-second long Instagram and/or TikTok videos in four experimental conditions: 1) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 1); 2) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-oriented activities (condition 2); 3) younger-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content; and 4) older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes without any fitness-oriented content (control).
Interventions
OTHERYouth Perceptions of Influencer Age and Fitness Contexts in E-Cigarette Marketing
Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers. Influencer age appearance was manipulated using AI-based age filter.
Sponsors
University of Southern California
Tobacco Related Disease Research Program
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Videos featuring young- or older-looking influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness-related activities or without such activities
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
14 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 14-17 years of age, * English fluency, * Current California resident.
Exclusion criteria
Not meeting the following criteria: * 14-17 years of age, * English fluency, * Current California resident.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Harm Perceptions of e-cigarettes | assessed six times immediately after each of the six videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment | Responses to one question adapted from PATH, "Based on the videos you just watched, do you think using e-cigarettes for vaping nicotine is harmful to your health?" The outcome was assessed on the 5-point ordinal scale with the following response choices: Not at all harmful, slightly harmful, somewhat harmful, very harmful, extremely harmful. |
| Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes | Assessed six times immediately after each of the six videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment | Description: Responses to the following questions: using e-cigarette is: not cool/cool, unattractive/attractive were assessed on the 7-point semantic differential scale with the word pairs anchored at each end. The scale was adapted from prior research. The items were combined (by summing all the non-missing values of the items) into one variable (α=0.94). |
| Susceptibility to e-cigarette use | Assessed six times immediately after each of the six videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment | Susceptibility to e-cigarette use was measured (among never-users of e-cigarettes), using the validated three-item scale (indicating peer influence, intention, and curiosity about e-cigarette use) adapted from PATH, and combined into one variable (α=0.93). Consistent with prior research, the measure was dichotomized with responses "definitely not" to all items being coded as "not susceptible" and responses "probably not," "probably yes", or "definitely yes" being coded as "susceptible." |
| Perceived influencer credibility | Assessed six times immediately after each of the six videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment | Perceived influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) were assessed using a 0 (e.g., dishonest) -100 (e.g., honest) scale that has been validated in prior research. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJennifer B Unger, PhD
University of Southern California
Outcome results
None listed