Can Exposure to Brief Messages Correct Misperceptions?
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05129592. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Official title
A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Efficacy of Brief Messages to Correct Misperceptions About Nicotine
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
This study seeks to assess the efficacy of educational messages to correct misperceptions. A large proportion of the American population incorrectly believes that nicotine is the chemical responsible for causing cancer in tobacco products.1-3 This misconception may reduce the likelihood that established smokers who are unwilling or unable to quit tobacco product use completely will switch to less harmful non-combustible products. An online experiment will be used to test if corrective messages can reduce this misperception. The experiment will also test the effects of messages on beliefs about the relative harms of other tobacco products discussed in the message and accuracy of inferential beliefs. This will be accomplished by asking participants questions about two tobacco products that are not explicitly discussed in the messages. The experiment will test if the two components of "narrative coherence," a concept identified in previous reviews of misperception correction as effective,4-6 is effective at reducing misperceptions about nicotine. Component 1 provides an explanation for why the new information is correct and component 2 provides an explanation for how the false information came to be believed. This study will use a factorial design to test the efficacy of the component of coherence individually as well as together. Hypotheses and Research Questions: RQ1: Will participants exposed to different corrective message conditions differ in increased accuracy of beliefs (a) that nicotine does not cause cancer, (b) regarding the relative risk of e-cigarettes compared to cigarettes, (c) regarding the relative risk of very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNC) compared to cigarettes and (d) regarding the relative risk of nicotine replacement therapy compared to cigarettes. H1: Participants exposed to the nicotine corrective message with both components of coherence will be significantly more likely to increase accuracy of beliefs regarding the relative harms of (a) smokeless tobacco compared to cigarettes and (b) cigarillos relative to cigarettes compared to those exposed to messages with just one component or no components of coherence. H2: Participants exposed to the nicotine corrective message with both components of coherence will be significantly more likely to increase their intention to switch completely to a noncombustible product compared to those exposed to messages with just one component or no components of coherence.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT05129592
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 193 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 21 Years to 99 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 21, 2021
- Primary completion
- Jan 29, 2022
- Completion
- Jul 31, 2022
- Last update posted
- Mar 11, 2024
2021 – 2022
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health | Baltimore | Maryland | 21205 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05129592, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 11, 2024 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT05129592 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.