Impact of Instagram and TikTok influencer marketing on perceptions of e-cigarettes and perceptions of influencers in young adults: a randomised survey-based experiment.
IF 4 2区 医学Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Julia Vassey, Erin A Vogel, Jennifer B Unger, Junhan Cho, Dayoung Bae, Scott I Donaldson, Jon-Patrick Allem
{"title":"Impact of Instagram and TikTok influencer marketing on perceptions of e-cigarettes and perceptions of influencers in young adults: a randomised survey-based experiment.","authors":"Julia Vassey, Erin A Vogel, Jennifer B Unger, Junhan Cho, Dayoung Bae, Scott I Donaldson, Jon-Patrick Allem","doi":"10.1136/tc-2024-059021","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Pairing e-cigarettes with healthy lifestyle contexts in influencers' promotional social media posts may increase e-cigarette use risk among young adults. This study examined the effects of e-cigarette and healthy lifestyle content on young adults' perceptions of influencer credibility, harm perceptions of, and susceptibility to use, e-cigarettes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this survey-based online, repeated-measures experiment (2023), California young adults (N=1494, M<sub>age</sub>=23 (SD=1.8); 63% female, 51% Hispanic) were randomly shown 10 (total) Instagram and TikTok videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or a healthy lifestyle activity alone (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceived influencer credibility (eg, honesty). After watching all videos, harm perceptions of e-cigarettes were assessed among all participants and susceptibility to e-cigarette use was assessed among e-cigarette never-users. Harm perceptions and susceptibility outcomes were compared between groups (experimental vs control) and between participants who perceived influencers as credible versus non-credible, using binomial generalised linear mixed effects models.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Participants in the experimental group were more likely to report lower harm perceptions (adjusted OR (AOR) 1.12; 95% CI 1.03; 1.21) and higher susceptibility to e-cigarette use (AOR 1.22, 95% CI 1.11; 1.34), than participants in the control condition. Similar results were found when influencers were perceived as credible, but not when they were perceived as non-credible.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Social media influencers' posts promoting e-cigarette use along with healthy activities may contribute to young adult e-cigarette use. Decreasing perceived credibility of influencers could decrease the negative effects of their promotional posts.</p><p><strong>Trial registration number: </strong>NCT06433466.</p>","PeriodicalId":23145,"journal":{"name":"Tobacco Control","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tobacco Control","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2024-059021","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Pairing e-cigarettes with healthy lifestyle contexts in influencers' promotional social media posts may increase e-cigarette use risk among young adults. This study examined the effects of e-cigarette and healthy lifestyle content on young adults' perceptions of influencer credibility, harm perceptions of, and susceptibility to use, e-cigarettes.
Methods: In this survey-based online, repeated-measures experiment (2023), California young adults (N=1494, Mage=23 (SD=1.8); 63% female, 51% Hispanic) were randomly shown 10 (total) Instagram and TikTok videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or a healthy lifestyle activity alone (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceived influencer credibility (eg, honesty). After watching all videos, harm perceptions of e-cigarettes were assessed among all participants and susceptibility to e-cigarette use was assessed among e-cigarette never-users. Harm perceptions and susceptibility outcomes were compared between groups (experimental vs control) and between participants who perceived influencers as credible versus non-credible, using binomial generalised linear mixed effects models.
Results: Participants in the experimental group were more likely to report lower harm perceptions (adjusted OR (AOR) 1.12; 95% CI 1.03; 1.21) and higher susceptibility to e-cigarette use (AOR 1.22, 95% CI 1.11; 1.34), than participants in the control condition. Similar results were found when influencers were perceived as credible, but not when they were perceived as non-credible.
Conclusions: Social media influencers' posts promoting e-cigarette use along with healthy activities may contribute to young adult e-cigarette use. Decreasing perceived credibility of influencers could decrease the negative effects of their promotional posts.
期刊介绍：
Tobacco Control is an international peer-reviewed journal covering the nature and consequences of tobacco use worldwide; tobacco''s effects on population health, the economy, the environment, and society; efforts to prevent and control the global tobacco epidemic through population-level education and policy changes; the ethical dimensions of tobacco control policies; and the activities of the tobacco industry and its allies.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
