{"id":196411,"date":"2021-05-22T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-22T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=196411"},"modified":"2021-05-22T11:40:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T15:40:22","slug":"196411","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2021\/196411\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimism Bias in Teen Vaping"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-emphasis-on-text has-media has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-scaled.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-636x358.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-992x558.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1500x844.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1984x1116.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-755x425.jpg 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1628x916.jpg 1628w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1366x768.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-854x480.jpg 854w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-515008451-900x506.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">vaping<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOptimism Bias in Teen Vaping\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">More than half of teens overestimate their ability to quit vaping in comparison to others.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">May 22, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/jillian-mckoy\/\">Jillian McKoy<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Teen e-cigarette use has more than doubled since 2017, with national surveys revealing that 25 percent of 12<sup>th<\/sup> graders and 20 percent of 10<sup>th<\/sup> graders on average have vaped in the past month. One factor that could be contributing to this sharp increase is teens\u2019 overconfidence in their own ability to quit vaping in comparison to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A new School of Public Health study explored this tendency for people to overestimate their own chances of positive experiences relative to others\u2014a phenomenon known as \u201coptimism bias\u201d\u2014examining whether, and to what extent, this bias plays a role in teens\u2019 perceptions of how difficult it would be for them to quit vaping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/add.15525\">Published in the journal <em>Addiction<\/em><\/a>, the study is the first to examine optimism bias in teen vaping, and researchers found that more than 60 percent of teens overestimate their ability to quit using e-cigarettes in comparison to other youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAdding to the increasing trend in teen vaping is a perception that vaping is less harmful than smoking and that it is easier to quit than smoking, even though most JUULs have nicotine levels typical to combustible cigarettes,\u201d says study lead author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/kiersten-strombotne\/\">Kiersten Strombotne<\/a>, assistant professor of health law, policy &amp; management. \u201cTeenagers may exhibit optimism bias\u2014this \u2018better than average\u2019 heuristic\u2014for a number of reasons. They may want to view themselves in a more favorable light, or believe that they have more control than other teens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding how accurately teens view the risk in vaping is important because their perceived beliefs in their ability to quit easily may contribute to teens\u2019 decision to start vaping, and can lead to addiction, Strombotne says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the study, the research team conducted a national online survey in December 2018 of more than 1,600 teenagers aged 14\u201318, all of whom had heard of or tried JUULs or e-cigarettes. The survey gauged participants\u2019 perceptions of how hard it would it be to quit using e-cigarettes that contained nicotine, both for themselves and for other categories of youths of similar ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study showed that the majority of teens overestimated their own ability to quit vaping, and were more realistic\u2014i.e., less confident\u2014about the ability of others to quit, particularly for youth with whom they were less familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome teens may be able to quit vaping more easily than others, but on average, if we ask teens how difficult they think it would be for them to quit vaping, more than half of the responses shouldn\u2019t be that they can quit more easily than the average teen,\u201d says Strombotne. \u201cSo from our findings, we know that optimism bias exists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She says the data suggest important policy implications for e-cigarette advertising and regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTeens\u2019 perceptions should align with reality, so policies that can de-bias people\u2019s perceived control with vaping would be ideal,\u201d Strombotne says. \u201cWe know from prior work that e-cigarette flavors change perception of harm and risk, so efforts to ban or regulate flavors or regulate flavors could indirectly help to de-bias teenagers in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study was coauthored by Jody Sindelar of Yale School of Public Health and John Buckell of Oxford University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teen e-cigarette use has more than doubled since 2017, with national surveys revealing that 25 percent of 12th graders and 20 percent of 10th graders on average have vaped in the past month. One factor that could be contributing to this sharp increase is teens\u2019 overconfidence in their own ability to quit vaping in comparison [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":196396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"vaping","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[3129,3380,2460],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3535,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[3151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/196411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196411"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/196411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196449,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/196411\/revisions\/196449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=196411"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=196411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}