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Informing Tobacco Regulatory Policy through Laboratory Assessment of Appeal and Demand for Flavored Tobacco Products among Young Adults

Informing Tobacco Regulatory Policy through Laboratory Assessment of Appeal and Demand for Flavored Tobacco Products among Young Adults

Principal Investigator: Amy M. Cohn

Funding Mechanism: National Institutes of Health – Grant

ID number: 1R03DA042010-01A1

Award Date: 9/5/2016

Institution: Truth Initiative Foundation

Young adults are particularly susceptible to the use of flavored tobacco products; additional research could help clarify the specific reasons underlying their appeal. The goal of this study is to develop new methods for quantifying flavored tobacco product appeal. Study aims are: (1) to validate indices of implicit (below conscious awareness) appeal across flavored and non-flavored products; (2) to examine differences in implicit appeal for flavored and non-flavored products in both susceptible (never) and current tobacco users, controlling for factors related to tobacco use (e.g., social influences, harm perceptions); and (3) to examine the impact of baseline implicit flavored product appeal on changes in flavored/non-flavored harm perceptions, intentions and curiosity to use, and tobacco use.  Researchers will recruit 60 young adult current tobacco users and 60 susceptible never users (ages 18-24) and measure baseline implicit appeal for flavored and non-flavored tobacco products. Then, using monthly web-based assessments, researchers will evaluate the impact of appeal on changes in tobacco use behavior and attitudes over six months. Implicit appeal will be assessed via two laboratory tasks: (1) an Implicit Association Task that measures the speed with which participants accurately pair pictures of flavored versus non-flavored products with words related to "attractive" or "unattractive," and (2) a behavioral economic purchase task designed to assess demand for flavored versus non-flavored products under escalating price conditions. The goal is to determine whether implicit flavored product appeal is higher than non-flavored product appeal, especially among susceptible never users, and whether flavored product appeal negatively influences tobacco use outcomes and attitudes.