An interventional study of Gamified Social Norms Marketing Campaign and Social Norms Marketing Campaign in Underage Drinking, sponsored by Loyola Marymount University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 20 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-09-09.
Sponsored by Loyola Marymount University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
This pilot randomized control trial (RCT) aims to assess the feasibility and efficacy of 2 College Truths \& 1 Lie (2T1L), a gamified social norms marketing campaign (SNMC) aimed at preventing and reducing first-year college student drinking. This program is designed to correct overestimations of peers' alcohol use behaviors, which, as shown in previous research, influence one's own future drinking behaviors. To examine the efficacy of 2T1L, this pilot trial will use a longitudinal design to determine whether playing 2T1L during the first few weeks of college will prevent increases in drinking or reduce subsequent alcohol use among first-year students during the same year, relative to exposure to a static social media-delivered SNMC or an assessment-only control condition. The investigators hypothesize that students randomized to receive the interactive 2T1L SNMC game will report less state psychological reactance in response to normative campus drinking statistics than students randomized to the non-gamified SNMC condition. Further, students in the 2T1L game condition will report greater accuracy in their perceptions of campus drinking norms and consume less alcohol following the six-week SNMC (short-term follow-up) and toward the end of the first year (long-term follow-up) compared to those randomized to both the active non-gamified SNMC and assessment-only control conditions.
A pilot RCT will be conducted to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed gamified normative re-education campaign, 2 College Truths \& 1 Lie (2T1L), which will be embedded on the most popular social media platforms associated with high-risk drinking during the first year of college. Incoming first-year students will be invited to participate in an online survey during the month prior to the start of the fall semester to determine baseline drinking norms and alcohol use. An automated randomizer will be programmed into the online survey to non-visibly assign participants to the intervention (n=138), active control (n=138), or assessment-only control (n=138) group. On the first day of the second week of classes, ads promoting participation in the gamified and static versions of 2T1L will begin to appear in the Instagram accounts of participants randomized to the intervention and active control conditions, respectively. These ads will continue to run over the course of the first six weeks, with a new ad promoting the current round of play every two weeks. Approximately one month following the conclusion of the final round of play, participants in all three conditions will be invited to complete the first follow-up survey (short-term intervention effects), which will include the same measures of drinking norms and alcohol use assessed at baseline. Six months post-intervention, participants will be invited to complete a second follow-up survey to assess the long-term effects of the intervention. At both the 1-month and 6-month follow-ups, the investigators expect that participants randomized to the intervention group will report greater accuracy in their perceptions of campus drinking norms and consume less alcohol relative to those randomized to both the active non-gamified SNMC and assessment-only control conditions.
44 studies on the registry are indexed under Underage Drinking; 13 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 392 is close to the median of 360 across 43 interventional studies indexed under Underage Drinking.
Browse Underage Drinking studies →Loyola Marymount University is the lead sponsor of 9 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Participants randomized to this arm will receive a gamified social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on the social media platform Instagram.
Behavioral: Gamified Social Norms Marketing Campaign
Participants randomized to this arm will receive a social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on the social media platform Instagram.
Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign
Participants do not receive anything besides the surveys.
This intervention is a gamified social norms marketing campaign (SNMC) primarily disseminated via advertisements on Instagram. These advertisements will invite students to participate in a game about student life at their university, during which misperceived alcohol norms will be corrected. The gamified SNMC spans the first full six weeks of students' first fall semester in college and includes three rounds of play. Round one occurs during the first two weeks, round two during the third and fourth weeks, and round three during the fifth and sixth weeks. In the game, participants are asked to identify whether normative facts related to a variety of topics are true or false. Correct feedback is then provided, intended to reinforce accurate norms related to alcohol use, which are embedded alongside other facts about college life.
This intervention is a social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on Instagram. These advertisements will contain normative facts related to student life at their university, during which misperceived alcohol norms will be corrected.
Change from Baseline Daily Drinking at 4 Months
Self-reported number of drinks consumed during an average week in the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Daily Drinking at 9 Months
Self-reported number of drinks consumed during an average week in the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 9 months
Change from Peak Drinking Occasion at 4 Months
Self-reported max number of drinks consumed on a single occasion in the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Peak Drinking Occasion at 9 Months
Self-reported max number of drinks consumed on a single occasion in the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 9 months
Change from Baseline Descriptive Peer Drinking Norms- Drinking Norms Rating form at 4 Months
Assesses perceptions of weekly alcohol consumption among peers over the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Descriptive Peer Drinking Norms- Drinking Norms Rating form at 9 Months
Assesses perceptions of weekly alcohol consumption among peers over the past 30 days.
Time frame: baseline, 9 months
Ran from Aug 2024 to primary completion in May 2025, 9 months.
Of 34 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Underage Drinking, half reached primary completion within 24 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 38. This study's 9 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 36 studies reached it within 24 months; a quarter within 12 and three quarters within 38.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Loyola Marymount University