Influence of Facebook Ads on Food Choice

NYU Langone Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Food Choices

Treatments: Behavioral: Racially Congruent Ads; Behavioral: Racially Incongruent Ads

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05380505

20-01796

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is a randomized trial to examine the influence of race-congruent food marketing on social media among Black and White adolescents.

Full description

The overall objective of our three studies is to identify the extent to which exposure to Facebook food ads increases the number of calories purchased and consumed by Black and White adolescents. Guided by strong preliminary data, the study team will test three aims: 1)To evaluate the extent to which exposure to racially congruent vs. incongruent Facebook food ads causes Black vs. White adolescents to purchase more calories for a snack; 2)To determine the extent to which exposure to many vs. few "likes" on Facebook food ads causes Black and White adolescents to purchase more calories for a snack; and 3)To test the degree to which visual attention to unhealthy foods, racially congruent people, and/or "likes" in Facebook ads explains the relationship between ad exposure and calorie intake.

Enrollment: 1,252 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• adolescent (13-17 years of age)
• who identifies as only non-Latino White or only Black/African American
• who logs into Facebook once daily
• who can read and speak English

Exclusion criteria

• participants who do not meet all criteria described above.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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1,252 participants in 2 patient groups

Condition 1: Race Congruent Ads

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete a 15-minute survey in which they will be randomized to view and rate Facebook food ads associated with their condition. Then they will complete a food purchasing task in which they will shop in an online store that will display six food items and six beverages. Finally, they will answer demographic questions (e.g., self-reported height and weight) and view a debriefing summary that describes the full purpose of the study.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Racially Congruent Ads

Condition 2: Race Incongruent Ads

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete a 15-minute survey in which they will be randomized to view and rate Facebook food ads associated with their condition. Then they will complete a food purchasing task in which they will shop in an online store that will display six food items and six beverages. Finally, they will answer demographic questions (e.g., self-reported height and weight) and view a debriefing summary that describes the full purpose of the study.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Racially Incongruent Ads