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| Name | Class |
|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | NIH |
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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.
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.
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| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside entertainment | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fashion | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside avatar | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fitness | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside fashion | Experimental |
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Youth Perceptions of Influencer Age and Various Contexts in E-Cigarette Marketing | Other | Participants watched online survey-imbedded promotional videos featuring influencers. Influencer age appearance was manipulated using AI-based age filter. |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Harm Perceptions of e-cigarettes | 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. | Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment |
| Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes | 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). | Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment |
| Susceptibility to e-cigarette use | 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. | Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment |
| Perceived influencer credibility | 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. | Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment |
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Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
Not meeting the following criteria:
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| Name | Role | Phone | Extension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jennifer B Unger, PI, PhD | Contact | (323) 442-7200 | unger@usc.edu | |
| Julia Vassey, PhD | Contact | (323) 442-7200 | vassey@usc.edu |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Jennifer B Unger, PhD | University of Southern California | Principal Investigator |
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survey is anonymous. Data will be publicly available on GitHub repository if manuscripts related to this study are accepted for publication
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| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D000072137 | Vaping |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D012907 | Smoking |
| D001519 | Behavior |
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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.
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| Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside avatar | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring young influencers promoting e-cigarettes alone | Experimental |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alone | Active Comparator |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring two neutral profiles of older influencers | Placebo Comparator |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring two neutral profiles of younger influencers | Placebo Comparator |
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| Experimental: Videos featuring older influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside entertainment | Experimental |
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