Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on Twitter on knowledge and perceptions of e-cigarettes

Abstract

Background This study examined whether exposure to misinformation found on Twitter about e-cigarette harms leads to inaccurate knowledge and misperceptions of harms of e-cigarette use among cigarette smokers. Methods We conducted an online randomized controlled experiment in November 2019 among an online sample of 2400 adult US and UK cigarette smokers who did not currently use e-cigarettes. Participants viewed four tweets in one of four conditions: 1) e-cigarettes are as or more harmful than smoking, 2) e-cigarettes are completely harmless, 3) e-cigarette harms are uncertain and 4) control (physical activity). Outcomes were knowledge about e-cigarettes and harm perceptions of e-cigarette use for five diseases. We conducted multiple logistic and linear regressions to analyze the effect of experimental conditions on outcomes, controlling for baseline knowledge and perceived harms. Findings Participants in the ‘as or more harmful’ condition (vs. control group) had higher odds of accurate knowledge about e-cigarettes containing toxic chemicals ( p < 0.001), not containing only water vapor (p < 0.001) and containing formaldehyde ( p < 0.001). However, these participants had lower odds of accurate knowledge that e-cigarettes did not contain tar ( p < 0.001) and contained fewer toxins than cigarettes ( p < 0.001). Exposure to ‘as or more harmful’ tweets also increased harm perceptions for five diseases (all p < 0.001), with the greatest effect observed for lung cancer (β = 0.313, p < 0.001). This effect was greater among UK participants for all diseases. Interpretation Brief exposure to misinformation on Twitter reduced accurate knowledge of the presence of tar and the level of toxins compared with smoking and increased harm perceptions of e-cigarette use.

Effect of Advertisement, Promotion, and Sponsorship on E-cigarette Consumption among the Young Adults in Bangladesh

“…It has been found that people who are more exposed to APS of e-cigarettes are mainly using or have used e-cigarettes at a specific point in time. Specifically, in the case of e-cigarettes, where most advertisements promote the e-cigarette products as almost 'harmless' to health and use other tricky strategies of advertisement tools such as 'posh culture icon' or such, people tend to be more influenced by those sorts of promotion (Liu et al, 2022). According to Bolton et al (2006), the advertisements of e-cigarettes promote appealing exposures of e-cigarette packets and propose that e-cigarettes can be a solution to decrease the perceived harmfulness of cigarettes.…”