Alcohol consumers’ attention to warning labels and brand information on alcohol packaging: Findings from cross-sectional and experimental studies

Background Alcohol warning labels have a limited effect on drinking behavior, potentially because people devote minimal attention to them. We report findings from two studies in which we measured the extent to which alcohol consumers attend to warning labels on alcohol packaging, and aimed to identify if increased attention to warning labels is associated with motivation to change drinking behavior. Methods Study 1 (N = 60) was an exploratory cross-sectional study in which we used eye-tracking to measure visual attention to brand and health information on alcohol and soda containers. In study 2 (N = 120) we manipulated motivation to reduce drinking using an alcohol brief intervention (vs control intervention) and measured heavy drinkers’ attention to branding and warning labels with the same eye-tracking paradigm as in study 1. Then, in a separate task we experimentally manipulated attention by drawing a brightly colored border around health (or brand) information before measuring participants’ self-reported drinking intentions for the subsequent week. Results Study 1 showed that participants paid minimal attention to warning labels (7% of viewing time). Participants who were motivated to reduce drinking paid less attention to alcohol branding and alcohol warning labels. Results from study 2 showed that the alcohol brief intervention decreased attention to branding compared to the control condition, but it did not affect attention to warning labels. Furthermore, the experimental manipulation of attention to health or brand information did not influence drinking intentions for the subsequent week. Conclusions Alcohol consumers allocate minimal attention to warning labels on alcohol packaging and even if their attention is directed to these warning labels, this has no impact on their drinking intentions. The lack of attention to warning labels, even among people who actively want to cut down, suggests that there is room for improvement in the content of health warnings on alcohol packaging

Altering health-pleasure trade-off via advertising claims

The study investigated whether and how advertising claims (taste vs. health benefit) influenced consumer taste perception and buying intentions of potato chips. Participants (N=154) were exposed to the front of the product package and were invited to taste the product. Taste benefit claims lead to perceiving the chips as more tasty, while health benefit claims reduced the perceived level of tastefulness of the product. The buying intention was higher when the package carried taste than health benefit claims. These outcomes show that advertising claims may alter consumer health-pleasure trade-off and thus play a crucial role in buying decision

Misunderstanding of Front-Of-Package Nutrition Information on US Food Products

Front-of-package nutrition symbols (FOPs) are presumably readily noticeable and require minimal prior nutrition knowledge to use. Although there is evidence to support this notion, few studies have focused on Facts Up Front type symbols which are used in the US. Participants with varying levels of prior knowledge were asked to view two products and decide which was more healthful. FOPs on packages were manipulated so that one product was more healthful, allowing us to assess accuracy. Attention to nutrition information was assessed via eye tracking to determine what if any FOP information was used to make their decisions. Results showed that accuracy was below chance on half of the comparisons despite consulting FOPs. Negative correlations between attention to calories, fat, and sodium and accuracy indicated that consumers over-relied on these nutrients. Although relatively little attention was allocated to fiber and sugar, associations between attention and accuracy were positive. Attention to vitamin D showed no association to accuracy, indicating confusion surrounding what constitutes a meaningful change across products. Greater nutrition knowledge was associated with greater accuracy, even when less attention was paid. Individuals, particularly those with less knowledge, are misled by calorie, sodium, and fat information on FOPs

Limits to Behavioural Consumer Law and Policy: The Case of EU Alcohol Labelling

Limits of the implementation of findings from behavioural science into law and policy are increasingly recognized in the literature. In this contribution, we analyse the example of alcohol nutrition labelling to show the potential and the limits of how behavioural science can be meaningfully used to inform policy makers. We first explain what we understand to be proxies for the limit of the implementation of behavioural science into policy. Subsequently we illustrate how alcohol nutrition labelling is currently regulated and survey the on-going policy process, including an analysis of the self-regulatory proposals that have been tabled by the alcohol beverages industry. We then survey and apply existing consumer studies. Our research shows that behavioural insights support stronger alcohol nutrition labelling at a general level. However, the different options of labelling are currently understudied and provide an insufficiently sound empirical basis for policy making