An interventional study of Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing in Vaping, sponsored by University of Southern California. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 14 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-20.
Sponsored by University of Southern California · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
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.
402 studies on the registry are indexed under Vaping; 95 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 6,000 is above the median of 79 across 322 interventional studies indexed under Vaping.
Browse Vaping studies →University of Southern California is the lead sponsor of 791 studies on the registry; 136 are open to participants now.
Of its 70 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 32 (46%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Not meeting the following criteria:
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure to Influencer Age and Context Variations in E-Cigarette Marketing
Other: Exposure 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.
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.
Time frame: 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).
Time frame: 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.
Time frame: 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.
Time frame: Assessed 10 times immediately after each of the 10 videos during the 15-minute-long survey-based experiment
Plan to share: No — survey is anonymous. Data will be publicly available on GitHub repository if manuscripts related to this study are accepted for publication
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
University of Southern California →