Vaping Flavors and Flavor Representation: A Test of Youth Risk Perceptions, Novelty Perceptions, and Susceptibility

Introduction: Whether novelty-flavored vaping devices should be available in the marketplace has been a hotly contested debate. From one perspective, the variety of different flavors, such as fruit and mint, may help adult cigarette smokers who are seeking to switch to reduced-harm nicotine products. However, these flavors are also wildly popular among youth, creating concerns about new nicotine product use among minors.

Aims and methods: This experiment (n = 176) tests whether vaping flavors (tobacco vs fruit) and flavor representations on packages (flavor color, flavor image) influence how middle school youth perceive vaping products.

Results: While results show no difference in risk perceptions based on condition, novelty perceptions (eg, how fun, interesting) and susceptibility to vaping are highest among those who view the fruit-flavored vaping product with flavor color and flavor image. Those who viewed this condition reported higher novelty perceptions and susceptibility than those who viewed the fruit-flavored vaping product with no flavor color and no flavor image. Additionally, they reported higher novelty perceptions than those who viewed the tobacco-flavored vaping product with flavor color and flavor image. A post-hoc analysis in supplemental data shows that youth who report lower risk perceptions and higher susceptibility have higher behavioral intentions to vape in the next year.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that restricting flavor representation on packaging might reduce how fun and interesting youth perceive these products to be and how susceptible they are to using them.