Distinguished and Endowed Provost McKenzie Professor and Founding Director of the Cognition and Emotion Lab (CEL) in the School of Communication (SCOM), Dr. Russell B. Clayton and his Florida State University student co-authors, doctoral students Junho Park, Sazzad Mahmud Shuvo, recent graduates of SCOM master degree programs Kristina Simon and Sherry Rasul, and undergraduate student Jessica Weinberg along with colleagues from The Ohio State University Center for Tobacco Research and the University of Massachusetts Center for Tobacco Treatment Research and Training published a study in Health Psychology, a premier health journal.

The study, “Investigating Psychophysiological and Self-Report Responses to Antioral Nicotine Pouch Social Media Videos,” examined young adults’, all current users of oral nicotine pouches, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to antioral nicotine pouch social media content that varied in the presence and absence of disgust-eliciting content. In the study, the team of researchers recorded participants’ psychophysiological responses during their exposure to the antioral nicotine pouch videos, which were embedded in TikTok simulations. Following exposure to the TikTok simulations, participants self-reported their levels of craving, behavioral intentions to use oral nicotine pouches, and perceived harm reduction.

“Persuasive health messages—especially those that depict disgust-eliciting content—might be strategically placed in social media entertainment environments, like TikTok, as to capture audiences’ attention to the videos and alter future unhealthy or risky behaviors,” Clayton said.

Oral nicotine pouches have seen a recent rise in popularity among young adults through aggressive social media marketing claiming they are “tobacco-free” and “flavor ban approved,” and can be used discreetly anywhere. Although less harmful than smoking, there is a growing concern that oral nicotine pouches, like e-cigarettes, pose a risk to public health if young adults who do not otherwise use tobacco or nicotine products begin using oral nicotine pouches.

“The results highlight an important point: young adults respond favorably when oral health risks are vividly highlighted in antioral nicotine pouch videos. From a public health perspective, such messaging may reduce future intentions to use nicotine products,” Shuvo said.

The teams focused on disgust-eliciting content to observe if such content would effectively capture attention and persuade users of oral nicotine pouches to alter their health behaviors relative to similar videos without disgust-eliciting content.

“We predicted that using moderately disgust-eliciting content in antioral nicotine pouch messages would trigger a negativity bias response, and our results supported the negativity bias prediction. Participantspaid more attention to the antioral nicotine pouch TikTok videos with disgust-eliciting content than without it,” Park said.

On a platform like TikTok where oral nicotine pouch content is present, the study aimed to examine the effectiveness of antioral nicotine pouch media strategies that successfully persuade individuals from using these types of nicotine products.

“To make fully informed decisions about their usage, [oral nicotine pouch] users must be knowledgeable about the associated oral health risks of using [oral nicotine pouches], as this information to date is only offered on user-generated social media videos,” Weinberg said.

View the full study for more information!