Posted: May 26, 2021
Health warning labels (HWLs) on tobacco products reduce smoking. Initial findings suggest HWLs can reduce alcohol selection in online hypothetical studies, but there is an absence of evidence on their impact on selection or purchasing in naturalistic settings.
Using a naturalistic shopping laboratory (Blue Yonder Ltd), we aimed to estimate the impact on of HWLs on selection of alcoholic drinks. HWLs described adverse health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
We randomised 399 participants who consumed beer or wine regularly into one of three groups: (a) image-and-text HWLs (b) text-only HWLs (c) no HWLs. Participants completed a shopping task, where they were told to imagine purchasing items for their weekly shop, selecting from a range of alcoholic drinks (beer and wine), non-alcoholic drinks, and snacks. All participants then rated an image-and-text and text-only HWL on negative emotional arousal and acceptability.
We found no evidence that the HWLs reduced alcohol selection. Negative emotional arousal was higher and acceptability lower for the image-and-text HWLs, compared to text-only HWLs.
There may be no effect of HWLs on purchasing behaviour, or the study as designed failed to detect an effect. These HWLs now need to be tested in real-world settings that use objective purchasing measures – with drinks selected for consumption and the exchange of money.
To read the findings of the study in full click here.
Clarke, N., Blackwell, A. K. M., De-loyde, K., Pechey, E., Hobson, A., Pilling, M., Morris, R. W., Marteau, T. M., and Hollands, G. J. (2021) Health warning labels and alcohol selection: a randomised controlled experiment in a naturalistic shopping laboratory. Addiction, https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15519
