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Purpose To determine the association between exposure to FDA’s Fresh Empire tobacco public education campaign and tobacco-related beliefs. Design Repeated cross-sectional data collection design with embedded longitudinal cohort over six data collection waves. Setting 30 US evaluation markets. Sample Hip Hop peer crowd-identified US youth aged 12–18 (N = 5,378). Measures Self-reported brand and video ad awareness (saw any ad at least sometimes) and perceived effectiveness (1–5 scale) to describe campaign awareness and receptivity. Exogenous exposure was measured using population-adjusted broadcast and digital video impressions. Tobacco-related beliefs included beliefs about smoking risks, attitudes towards tobacco-free people and lifestyles, and normative beliefs about smoking. Analysis Descriptive analyses of awareness, receptivity, and agreement with tobacco-related beliefs. Logistic regression models to determine the relationship between broadcast and digital video impressions and beliefs. Intervention Fresh Empire campaign. Results The campaign generated a high level of reach (71% brand and 66% video ad awareness at final wave) and messages were well-received (across waves 3.5–4.1 mean perceived effectiveness scores). Higher broadcast television exposure was associated with increased agreement with five beliefs related to addiction/control, being a bad influence on family/friends, and cosmetic effects of smoking (breath and attractiveness) (ORs = 1.16–1.27, ( Ps < .05)). Conclusion Fresh Empire successfully reached and resonated with Hip Hop-identified youth. The campaign was associated with a limited number of targeted beliefs.

Virtual reality (VR) is widely recognised as a promising technology for training emergency first responders and other safety–critical workers. It is uniquely able to immerse trainees in extreme situations that are too risky or dangerous to be examined in traditional real-world safety training. Most organisations seeking to implement VR safety training often limit their decisions to financial and technological factors. However, in this paper, we argue that a socio-technical systems approach is required to better appreciate the social costs and benefits of VR training, which are important for a successful implementation. The paper also reports our own research on a real-world implementation of VR safety training for the Mine Rescue Brigades in New South Wales, Australia. The training—conducted in both fully immersive (360 VR) and non-immersive (Desktop VR) virtual reality—involved a search and rescue operation which was necessitated by an underground fire at the bottom of the transport drift in a coal mine. Following this training, the 368 trainees not only completed a post-training questionnaire, but also were interviewed, to assess their training experiences in the VR environment. The findings provide a comprehensive account of the social costs and benefits of adopting VR as a safety training tool. Overall, the trainees perceived the benefits to far outweigh the costs, with an overall high inclination to recommend the VR training to other colleagues. Desktop VR was found to be as fit for delivering successful training as the more immersive 360 VR. However, this Desktop VR generated considerably less motion sickness in trainees. These findings should help organisations and training providers decide on: (1) whether or not to invest in VR safety training solutions; (2) which type technology/method of delivery to use.

Remote workers are particularly prone to mental health problems (Bowers et al., 2018). Unfortunately, it is often difficult for them to access the quality psychological help that they need. As a result, psychological treatment is increasingly being delivered to remote workers via telehealth (videoconferencing and telephone calls). However, the perceived remoteness of the therapist during such treatments can greatly hinder progress. This project examined the potential of virtual reality (VR) to deliver psychotherapy to workers located in remote locations (since it can make people separated by great distances feel that they are “present” in the same virtual space). The study compared the experiences of 30 ‘clients’ who participated in both VR and Skype-based mock counselling sessions (delivered by trained psychotherapists). Overall, VR was found to outperform Skype: 1) as a therapeutic tool, 2) in terms of the perceived realism of the session; and 3), in terms of the degree of presence it generated in the clients and the therapists. Clients did not report feeling sick or stressed when using VR and found it as easy to use as Skype. These study findings (based on formal questionnaire data) were also confirmed by interviews with both the therapists and clients.

The national truth© campaign has exposed U.S. youth to antismoking messages since 2000. Tobacco industry–sponsored campaigns, such as “Think. Don’t Smoke” (TDS), have also aired nationally. We examine the effects of recall of the truth© and TDS campaigns on changes in tobacco-related beliefs, intentions, and smoking initiation in a longitudinal survey of U.S. youth. Recall of truth© was associated with increased agreement with antismoking beliefs, decreased smoking intentions, and lower rates of smoking initiation. Recall of TDS was associated with increased intentions to smoke soon but was not significantly associated with tobacco beliefs or smoking initiation among youth overall.