Influencer E-Cigarette and Cannabis Marketing: a Survey-Based Experiment Among Adolescents

Adolescent non-users of e-cigarettes and cannabis (N = 1,462) participated in the in-class survey-based experiment. They were randomly shown 3 pairs of images featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside cannabis, (experimental group), or no-substance use or display (placebo treatment), or e-cigarette promotion alone (control). After viewing each pair of images, participants rated perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest). Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was assessed after participants viewed all the images. These outcomes were then compared among participants who perceived influencers as credible and those who perceived influencers as non-credible.