That’s a really good point Amelia! Totally missed that issue when reading the study, and I think you’re absolutely spot on.

It did seem strange that so many students had dripped, but I just assumed that most of them must have tried somebody else’s RDA or something, which in hindsight I should have questioned more!

And yeah, that explains why about a quarter said they didn’t know too. The study is much more of a disaster than I thought, lol.

I think I’ll add an extra little bit about this – but of course give you credit for the great spot 🙂

Anyway, thanks very much, and I’m glad you liked the article!

They primed respondents with a definition of e-cigarettes that highlighted refilling. “Some people refill their own cartridges with ‘juice,’ sometimes called e-juice.” They gave NO context or definition of “dripping” in the survey, and this is what they asked: “Have you ever used the dripping method to add e-liquid to your e-cigarette?”

I bet lots of students have seen a tank filled with a dropper bottle by now, even though vaping is still pretty experimental and uncommon in this demographic. On the other hand, RDAs are pretty niche and “the dripping method to add e-liquid to your e-cigarette” is not how anyone refers to what constitutes dripping in the real world.

My guess is that the majority of respondents answering yes to this question thought the researchers were asking about droppers on bottles of e-liquid. They measured who had ever filled a tank (or vaped something they had seen filled). And I also bet some the small minority of non-naive vaping young people, would have found this wording confusing and answered “I don’t know.”