Experiment Among Smokers in Which Two Variables Are Manipulated: Ostracism and Concealability

Not Applicable

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Ostracism
• Interventions: Behavioral: Do men and women differ in their reactions to the experimental conditions.

• Registration Number: NCT06462950
• Lead Sponsor: Dickinson College

Brief Summary

The goal of this experimental study is to learn about the effects of ostracism and concealment among adult smokers. The main aims are:

1. Determine the causal consequences of gendered stigmatization. Specifically, do women react more strongly than men to exclusion (as opposed to inclusion) especially when their gender is revealed (as opposed to concealed) for outcomes such as smoking stigma, stress, cognitive depletion, smoking attitudes, and smoking cessation intentions (Study 3)?

2. Examine the moderating roles of cultural context. Specifically, contrasting the cultural context in the US and Denmark (where gender norms are more egalitarian) do Danish smokers show fewer gender differences than US smokers in how they describe and react to their smoking stigmatization experiences (Study 1, 2, and 3)?

Detailed Description

The proposed studies examine cross-culturally the reasons why among smokers, women feel more stigmatized than men do. An experiment with US and Danish smokers will examine how men and women differ in their reactions to being stigmatized (using a standard exclusion manipulation) when their gender is revealed instead of concealed. The outcome measures will include stress, smoking stigma, cognitive depletion, smoking attitudes, and smoking cessation intentions.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-06
• Study First Submitted: 2024-06-04
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-06-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-06-11
• Study First Posted: 2024-06-17
• Last Update Posted: 2024-06-17
• Study Start: 2028-05
• Primary Completion: 2028-07
• Study Completion: 2028-12

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 340

Inclusion Criteria

• daily smoker who smoker more than 5 cigarettes daily and have smoked for at least 1 year
• speak English reside in the United States

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: FACTORIAL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Ostracism	Do men and women differ in their reactions to the experimental conditions.	Ostracism is manipulated by randomly assigning people to the inclusion condition (they play an online ball tossing game and get the ball passed a third of the time) or exclusion condition (they get the ball passed twice in the beginning of the game and then not again).
Concealment	Do men and women differ in their reactions to the experimental conditions.	Concealment is manipulated by randomly assigning the participants to information that the other players did (revealed condition) or did not know (concealed condition) the gender of the participant.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Cognitive depletion	10 min	The Stroop Color-Word Interference Test measures the executive control needed to suppress reading a word and instead naming the color of the word. The test will be adminstered once immediately after the experimental task.