Vaping
Conditions
Brief summary
The proposed study will conduct two randomized between-subject experiments among 6,000 adolescents (per each experiment) recruited nationwide to test the effects of audio-visual features of e-cigarette influencer marketing on perceptions of influencer credibility, e-cigarette harm perceptions, appeal, and susceptibility to e-cigarette use. This protocol represent the first experiment.
Detailed description
We will estimate the effects of visual features often used in e-cigarette influencer marketing on social media on perceptions of influencer credibility, harm perceptions, appeal and susceptibility to e-cigarette use among adolescents. We will assess interaction of the perceived age of influencers (young-looking vs older-looking) with the following features of influencer marketing, using two survey-based experiments: Experiment 1 will assess the effects of theme or social context appeal, i.e., use of generally positively perceived lifestyle contexts (e.g., healthy lifestyle, entertainment) alongside e-cigarette marketing.
Interventions
OTHERExposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Exposure to promotional e-cigarette videos where influencers' age appearance (manipulated via an AI-based age filter) and the situational context alongside e-cigarette promotion (manipulated by background settings) are systematically varied. The videos will be embedded within an online survey platform, immediately preceding the outcome assessment.
Sponsors
University of Southern California
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
We will conduct a randomized online between-subject experiment to assess how influencer characteristics and e-cigarette post features affect perceived influencer credibility, harm perceptions, product appeal, and susceptibility to e-cigarette use. 6,000 participants will be randomized to one of 12 conditions in a 2 × 6 design varying influencer age appearance, younger- versus older-looking, and e-cigarette post context, including e-cigarette-only control and e-cigarette content paired with lifestyle contexts such as fitness, entertainment, fashion, avatars, or no added context.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
14 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 14-17 years of age, * English fluency,
Exclusion criteria
Not meeting the following criteria: * 14-17 years of age, * English fluency,
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Harm Perceptions of e-cigarettes | Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 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 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment | 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 10 times immediately after each of the 10 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 10 times immediately after each of the 10 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
CONTACTJennifer B Unger, PI, PhD
CONTACTJulia Vassey, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJennifer B Unger, PhD
University of Southern California
Outcome results
None listed