The Young Adults' Experiences With Virtual Reality (YAES VR) Study

Food marketing has been unequivocally linked to poor diet and risk of excessive weight gain in young people. Food companies disproportionately target Black consumers with more advertisements ("ads") and the least healthy ads, contributing to nutritional disparities and nutrition-related diseases. To expand their reach, food companies have developed virtual reality (VR) marketing experiences that are engaging, highly sophisticated, and may more powerfully elicit biological signals precipitating a motivation to consume foods. Yet, little is known about how exposure to VR food marketing influences biological and behavioral outcomes among Black young adults. The interactional role of food/nutrition insecurity and exposure to VR food marketing among Black young adults is also unknown. There is a critical need to understand the biological and behavioral effects of VR food marketing among Black communities while the technology is in its infancy.

Inclusion criteria

• 18-24 years old;
• self-identify as Black or white in order to determine racial/ethnic differences in responses to unhealthy VR-based food and beverage marketing;
• self-report normal or corrected-to-normal vision from glasses or contacts;
• self-report comfort and ability to walk around within a VR paradigm;
• able to read, write, understand, and respond to all study materials (including the VR paradigm) in English
• residing in the NYC-metropolitan area in order to be available for in-person study
• capacity and willingness to provide consent

Exclusion criteria

• report a history of disorders causing motion sickness or have a history of significant motion sickness, which could be triggered within the VR paradigm
• self-report dietary restriction, such as food allergies or veganism, which may lead to different effects when exposed to food marketing;
• Self-report disliking 50% or more of the snacks that will be offered during the laboratory test snack as determined by a score of 5 or less on the food preferences questionnaire, which may have a confounding effect on consumption;
• report being pregnant or breastfeeding, which may affect hunger;
• smoke or consume tobacco, which decreases salivary flow; or
• self-report being very hungry based on 100 mm VAS hunger rating, which minimizes the burden to participants to fast prior to the visit and maximizes the ability to detect differences between groups.Those excluded for being very hungry will have the option of returning to the visit on a different day.