Young Adult Food Messaging Experiment

Part of paid clinical trials in Palo Alto, California.

Sponsor
Stanford University
Study ID
NCT07768462
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

  • Communication
  • Diet Quality
  • Young Adult Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - 29 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Lying about unhealthy foods being healthy — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies promote unhealthy foods as healthy.
  • Engineering foods to be addictive — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies engineer foods to be addictive.
  • Targeting groups — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies target some groups to sell their unhealthy products.
  • Piggybacking on social causes — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies promote their unhealthy products by piggybacking on popular social causes.
  • Covering up the evidence about the harms of unhealthy foods — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies cover up evidence about the harms of their unhealthy products.
  • Control — BEHAVIORAL
    Participants will view 1 control message about fire safety.

Study Details

The primary objective of this study is to identify the food counter-marketing messages (i.e., messages that describe deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies) that are perceived as most effective among young adults.

Key Dates

First listed
Aug 17, 2026
Start date
Jan 8, 2027
Status verified
Aug 2026
Primary completion
Jan 16, 2027
Completion
Jan 16, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
645 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
PREVENTION

Arms

  • Experimental: Experimental: Counter-marketing food messages
    Participants view 26 messages. Messages cover five counter-marketing topics: (1) lying about unhealthy products being healthy, (2) engineering foods to be addictive, (3) covering up evidence about the harms of consuming unhealthy products, (4) targeting groups, (5) piggybacking on social causes to promote products. Each topic is presented in five framing variants: an unframed version and four values-based frames that connect the message to a value (e.g., authenticity, fairness). Participants also view one control message, for a total of 26 messages (5 topics × 5 framing variants, plus 1 control). Topic order is randomized across participants; within each topic, the five framing variants are presented consecutively in random order.

Primary Outcome Measure

Perceived message effectiveness for discouraging consumption of unhealthy foods [ Time Frame: The survey will take up to 15 minutes ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Stanford School of MedicinePalo AltoCalifornia94304
Amanda Zeitlin
[email protected]
408-598-2672

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By research site
Stanford School of Medicine· Palo Alto, CA

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