{
  "abstract": "IntroductionVaping public education campaigns are a central prevention strategy for young adults (YAs), but message effectiveness varies widely and formative testing typically evaluates one message attribute at a time. This study examined how four perceptual dimensions--cognitive engagement, social relevance, emotional arousal, and emotional valence--relate to perceived message effectiveness (PME), and whether multiple combinations of these dimensions correspond to similarly high PME.\n\nMethodsIn a cross-sectional online message-testing study conducted from March to April 2025, 540 U.S. YAs who vape each evaluated 15 messages randomly sampled from a corpus of 229 text-image vaping public education messages, yielding 8,100 message evaluations. Cross-classified multilevel models estimated associations between each perceptual dimension and PME. An Explainable Boosting Machine probed nonlinear associations, and k-means clustering of high-predicted-PME perceptual configurations identified distinct profiles. Analyses were conducted in 2026.\n\nResultsCognitive engagement (b = 0.20, 95% CI [0.18, 0.22]) and social relevance (b = 0.15, 95% CI [0.13, 0.17]) showed the strongest associations with PME, followed by emotional arousal (b = 0.06, 95% CI [0.04, 0.08]); emotional valence showed no linear association (b = 0.00, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.02]). The Explainable Boosting Machine revealed a U-shaped valence pattern, with higher predicted PME at both the negative and positive ends of the scale. Clustering yielded five distinct perceptual profiles with similarly high predicted PME (4.10-4.25).\n\nConclusionsMultiple perceptual configurations correspond to similarly high PME, supporting a configurational approach to formative message testing rather than a single optimal message formula.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of California, Santa Barbara"
  ],
  "article_type": "PUBLISHAHEADOFPRINT",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "J. Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Q. Peng"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Malik"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "E. Norton"
    },
    {
      "name": "T. Ye"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Markey"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Worsdale"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. H. Sweet"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cwcc7c3dnxk7c.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669v1.full",
  "id": "cwcc7c3dnxk7c",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "medrxiv",
      "public and global health"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2737|Smoking Behavior and Cessation"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220715547",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-04",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cwcc7c3dnxk7c.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:17Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669",
      "source": "medrxiv",
      "url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.04.26364669v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "medrxiv:public and global health",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Identifying Message \"Recipes\" for High Perceived Effectiveness: Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Profiles of Vaping Public Education Messages Among Young Adults Who Vape",
  "title_text": "Identifying Message \"Recipes\" for High Perceived Effectiveness: Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Profiles of Vaping Public Education Messages Among Young Adults Who Vape",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:17Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cwcc7c3dnxk7c",
  "venue": "medRxiv",
  "versions": []
}