About

Rachel Cassidy is an Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University. She is an experimental psychologist with a focus on tobacco regulatory science, particularly in young adult and adolescent populations. Her research aims to reduce youth and young adult smoking through understanding the effects of tobacco control policies, including the FDA's potential nicotine reduction standard. Over the past decade, she has studied how such policies impact tobacco use behaviors, conducting clinical trials and field studies on very low nicotine content cigarettes among youth and young adults. Cassidy employs a behavioral economic framework to analyze substance use and has developed measures to assess the reinforcing efficacy of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Her work also explores co-use of cannabis and tobacco, aiming to inform strategies that can effectively reduce tobacco use in youth.

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Toxicology
• Biology
• Organic chemistry
• Pathology
• Environmental health
• Food science
• Demography
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Reduced-nicotine cigarettes for smoking cessation and reduction

  Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2026-03-04

  article

  OBJECTIVES: This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To evaluate the benefits and harms of using reduced-nicotine cigarettes, compared with standard cigarettes, in people who smoke. To evaluate the benefits and harms of smoking cessation or reduction interventions used as an adjunct to reduced-nicotine cigarettes in people who smoke, compared with the same interventions delivered without reduced-nicotine cigarettes.

  PublisherDOI

• Factors associated with considering switching to nicotine pouches among US adults who smoke

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports · 2026-03-07 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Oral nicotine pouches (ONPs) have gained popularity in recent years and are more popular among people who smoke. As ONPs are less harmful than cigarettes, understanding what factors are associated with considering switching to ONPs is critical. This study aims to examine the factors associated with consideration of switching from smoking to ONPs among US adults who smoke. Using data from the Wave 7 (2022-2023) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study (N=6315), we analyzed a sample of adults who currently smoke. The outcome was whether participants had considered switching from smoking to nicotine pouches, and a priori predictors were age, sex, race, ethnicity, income, sexual identity, region, internalizing/externalizing tendencies, current use of e-cigarettes, smokeless/snus, nicotine pouches, days of cigarette smoking, and having tried to quit cigarette smoking. Among adults who currently smoke in Wave 7 (N = 6315), 122 (weighted %=1.7) reported having considered switching from smoking to ONPs (outcome). In the adjusted model, considering switching was more likely to be associated with being male (vs. female) (aOR=2.75, 95%CI=1.44–5.24), non-Hispanic (vs. Hispanic) (aOR=3.33, 95%CI=1.27–8.70), sexual minorities (vs. heterosexual) (aOR=2.54, 95%CI=1.08–5.99), currently using nicotine pouches (vs. no) (aOR=30.50, 95%CI=13.08–71.10), and having attempted to quit cigarette smoking (vs. no) (aOR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.14–3.89). This study identified factors associated with having considered switching to ONPs among U.S. adults who smoke. Policymakers and clinicians should also consider these subgroups when developing and implementing ONP-related policies and guidelines. • Switching from cigarettes to oral nicotine pouches was more considered by males and non-Hispanic. • Switching from cigarettes to oral nicotine pouches was more considered by sexual minorities and current nicotine pouch users. • Switching from cigarettes to oral nicotine pouches was more considered by those who have attempted to quit cigarette smoking.

  PublisherDOI

• Greater Appeal and Greater Harm? Young Adults’ Preference for Menthol Versus Nonmenthol Very-Low-Nicotine Cigarettes in a Cross-Over Trial

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine · 2025-08-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Intimate partner violence and women's economic preferences

  ArXiv.org · 2025-07-14

  preprintOpen access

  One in three women globally experiences intimate partner violence (IPV), yet little is known about how such trauma affects economic decision-making. We provide causal evidence that IPV influences women's time preferences - a key parameter in models of savings, investment, and labor supply. We combine two empirical strategies using four distinct datasets. First, in two randomized recall experiments in Ethiopia, we randomly assigned women to recall specific acts of abuse before eliciting their intertemporal choices. Women with IPV experiences prompted to recall IPV display significantly greater impatience than otherwise similar women who are not prompted. Second, we exploit exogenous reductions in IPV generated by two randomized interventions - one involving cash transfers, the other psychotherapy - and use treatment assignment as an instrument for IPV exposure. Women who experience reduced IPV as a result of treatment exhibit more patient time preferences. Together, these results provide consistent, novel causal evidence that exposure to IPV induces individuals to discount the future more heavily. This evidence suggests a psychological channel through which violence can perpetuate economic disadvantage and constrain women's ability to take actions - such as saving, investing, or exiting abusive relationships - that require planning over time.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Relationship between Cannabis Use and Demand for Cigarettes in Adolescents who Smoke Cigarettes

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2025-11-08

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Tobacco Withdrawal and Cigarette Reinforcement as Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Reduced Nicotine Content Cigarettes on Adolescent Smoking Behavior

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2025-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• A systematic review of very low nicotine content cigarettes and compensatory smoking

  2024-10-23

  reviewOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Empowering Adolescent Girls using Safe Spaces and Engaging Men : Evidence from a RCT in Benin

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-12-13

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Racial/ethnic differences in the acute effects of reduced nicotine content cigarettes among adolescents who smoke

  Addictive Behaviors · 2024-09-07

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Keeping Girls in Secondary School: Evidence from a conditional cash transfer in Benin

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2024-12-13

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Psychometric Validation of an E-Cigarette Purchase Task in Users of Advanced Generation Devices

  NIH · $244k · 2016–2019

• Impact of nicotine reduction on adolescent cigarette use, alternative tobacco use, and harm from tobacco

  NIH · $1.5M · 2018–2022

• Evaluation of Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes in Adolescent Smokers

  NIH · $897k · 2014–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer W. Tidey

  Brown University

  154 shared

• Suzanne M. Colby

  Providence College

  102 shared

• Rachel Denlinger-Apte

  Wake Forest University

  40 shared

• Eric C. Donny

  Wake Forest University

  36 shared

• Dorothy K. Hatsukami

  33 shared

• Patricia A. Cioe

  25 shared

• Teresa DeAtley

  University of Pennsylvania

  24 shared

• Joseph S. Koopmeiners

  University of Minnesota

  17 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  University of Florida