2 College Truths and 1 Lie (2T1L)

2 College Truths and 1 Lie: Social Media Embedded Gamified Normative Re-education

This pilot randomized control trial (RCT) aims to assess the feasibility and efficacy of 2 College Truths & 1 Lie (2T1L), a gamified social norms marketing campaign (SNMC) aimed at preventing and reducing first-year college student drinking. This program is designed to correct overestimations of peers' alcohol use behaviors, which, as shown in previous research, influence one's own future drinking behaviors. To examine the efficacy of 2T1L, this pilot trial will use a longitudinal design to determine whether playing 2T1L during the first few weeks of college will prevent increases in drinking or reduce subsequent alcohol use among first-year students during the same year, relative to exposure to a static social media-delivered SNMC or an assessment-only control condition. The investigators hypothesize that students randomized to receive the interactive 2T1L SNMC game will report less state psychological reactance in response to normative campus drinking statistics than students randomized to the non-gamified SNMC condition. Further, students in the 2T1L game condition will report greater accuracy in their perceptions of campus drinking norms and consume less alcohol following the six-week SNMC (short-term follow-up) and toward the end of the first year (long-term follow-up) compared to those randomized to both the active non-gamified SNMC and assessment-only control conditions.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Underage Drinking
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Gamified Social Norms Marketing Campaign; Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign

Detailed Description

A pilot RCT will be conducted to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed gamified normative re-education campaign, 2 College Truths & 1 Lie (2T1L), which will be embedded on the most popular social media platforms associated with high-risk drinking during the first year of college. Incoming first-year students will be invited to participate in an online survey during the month prior to the start of the fall semester to determine baseline drinking norms and alcohol use. An automated randomizer will be programmed into the online survey to non-visibly assign participants to the intervention (n=138), active control (n=138), or assessment-only control (n=138) group. On the first day of the second week of classes, ads promoting participation in the gamified and static versions of 2T1L will begin to appear in the Instagram accounts of participants randomized to the intervention and active control conditions, respectively. These ads will continue to run over the course of the first six weeks, with a new ad promoting the current round of play every two weeks. Approximately one month following the conclusion of the final round of play, participants in all three conditions will be invited to complete the first follow-up survey (short-term intervention effects), which will include the same measures of drinking norms and alcohol use assessed at baseline. Six months post-intervention, participants will be invited to complete a second follow-up survey to assess the long-term effects of the intervention. At both the 1-month and 6-month follow-ups, the investigators expect that participants randomized to the intervention group will report greater accuracy in their perceptions of campus drinking norms and consume less alcohol relative to those randomized to both the active non-gamified SNMC and assessment-only control conditions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 392
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90045
      • Loyola Marymount University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Incoming first-year student with valid LMU email address
• 18-20 years of age
• Checks their Instagram 1-3+ times per week
• Consented to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not an incoming first year student attending LMU
• Under 18 years of age or over 20 years of age
• Do not have an Instagram account or checks it fewer than 1-3+ times per week
• Did not consent to participate in the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gamified Social Norms Marketing Campaign; Participants randomized to this arm will receive a gamified social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on the social media platform Instagram.	Behavioral: Gamified Social Norms Marketing Campaign; This intervention is a gamified social norms marketing campaign (SNMC) primarily disseminated via advertisements on Instagram. These advertisements will invite students to participate in a game about student life at their university, during which misperceived alcohol norms will be corrected. The gamified SNMC spans the first full six weeks of students' first fall semester in college and includes three rounds of play. Round one occurs during the first two weeks, round two during the third and fourth weeks, and round three during the fifth and sixth weeks. In the game, participants are asked to identify whether normative facts related to a variety of topics are true or false. Correct feedback is then provided, intended to reinforce accurate norms related to alcohol use, which are embedded alongside other facts about college life.
Experimental: Social Norms Marketing Campaign; Participants randomized to this arm will receive a social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on the social media platform Instagram.	Behavioral: Social Norms Marketing Campaign; This intervention is a social norms marketing campaign that is primarily delivered via advertisements on Instagram. These advertisements will contain normative facts related to student life at their university, during which misperceived alcohol norms will be corrected.
No Intervention: Assessment-Only Control; Participants do not receive anything besides the surveys.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Daily Drinking at 4 Months	Self-reported number of drinks consumed during an average week in the past 30 days.	baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Daily Drinking at 9 Months	Self-reported number of drinks consumed during an average week in the past 30 days.	baseline, 9 months
Change from Peak Drinking Occasion at 4 Months	Self-reported max number of drinks consumed on a single occasion in the past 30 days.	baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Peak Drinking Occasion at 9 Months	Self-reported max number of drinks consumed on a single occasion in the past 30 days.	baseline, 9 months
Change from Baseline Descriptive Peer Drinking Norms- Drinking Norms Rating form at 4 Months	Assesses perceptions of weekly alcohol consumption among peers over the past 30 days.	baseline, 4 months
Change from Baseline Descriptive Peer Drinking Norms- Drinking Norms Rating form at 9 Months	Assesses perceptions of weekly alcohol consumption among peers over the past 30 days.	baseline, 9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Loyola Marymount University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 5, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 15, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): May 15, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 23, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 26, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): August 28, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 9, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 2, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Drinking Behavior; Alcohol Drinking; Behavior; Adolescent Behavior; Underage Drinking
• Other Study ID Numbers: 5R34AA030139-02 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No