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 Tobacco Control Pub Date : 2025-02-13 DOI:10.1136/tc-2024-059021

Julia Vassey, Erin A Vogel, Jennifer B Unger, Junhan Cho, Dayoung Bae, Scott I Donaldson, Jon-Patrick Allem

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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, M_age=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.

Trial registration number: NCT06433466.

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来源期刊

Tobacco Control 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

26.90%

发文量

223

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

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.