Recruiting

VR Food Marketing

Sponsor:

NYU Langone Health

Code:

NCT06917391

Conditions

Population Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 24

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Wendyverse VR food marketing experience

Nikeland VR non-food marketing experience

Study Details

Brief summary:

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of virtual reality (VR) food marketing exposure (versus VR non-food control) on snack consumption, purchase intention, hunger, and arousal in black and white young adults. Participants will be randomized to either the VR food marketing condition or VR non-food control. Study participation duration will be 2 hours during a one-time, single visit.

Conditions

Population Health

Study ID

NCT06917391

Start date

Nov 17, 2025

Status verified date

Jan, 2026

Completion date

Mar 31, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar 31, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 24

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

1. 18-24 years old;
2. self-identify as Black or white in order to determine racial/ethnic differences in responses to unhealthy VR-based food and beverage marketing;
3. self-report normal or corrected-to-normal vision from glasses or contacts;
4. self-report comfort and ability to walk around within a VR paradigm;
5. able to read, write, understand, and respond to all study materials (including the VR paradigm) in English
6. residing in the NYC-metropolitan area in order to be available for in-person study
7. capacity and willingness to provide consent

Exclusion Criteria:

1. report a history of disorders causing motion sickness or have a history of significant motion sickness, which could be triggered within the VR paradigm
2. self-report dietary restriction, such as food allergies or veganism, which may lead to different effects when exposed to food marketing;
3. 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;
4. report being pregnant or breastfeeding, which may affect hunger;
5. smoke or consume tobacco, which decreases salivary flow; or
6. 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.

Study Design

Enrollment

200 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Other

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Virtual Reality (VR) food marketing exposure

Participants will be given 15 minutes to explore the VR experience and provide feedback on whether they believe their peers would engage with the experience (concealment/deception).

active comparator: VR non-food control

Participants will be given 15 minutes to explore the VR experience and provide feedback on whether they believe their peers would engage with the experience (concealment/deception).

Interventions

Wendyverse VR food marketing experience

In the Wendyverse VR application ("app") participants can order from a Wendy's restaurant, play games, meet with others who may be visiting the Wendyverse, and access codes that can be used to obtain free food at physical restaurants.

Nikeland VR non-food marketing experience

In Nikeland VR app, participants can play sports, try on apparel, and engage with celebrity athletes.

Primary outcome measure

  • Snack consumption [ Time Frame: Post-VR exposure (up to 20 minutes) ]
  • Purchase intention via self-report questionnaire [ Time Frame: Post-VR exposure (~5-10 minutes) ]
  • Change in salivary flow [ Time Frame: Baseline, post-VR exposure (~5-10 minutes) ]
  • Change in electrodermal activity [ Time Frame: From baseline to post-VR exposure, up to 15 minutes ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Locations

NYU Langone Health

Recruiting

New York, New York, United States, 10016

More Information

Sponsor

NYU Langone Health

Last update posted

Apr 21, 2026

Last verified

Jan, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by NYU Langone Health on 2026-04-21.