NEWS in SCIENCE
Scientists determine optimal ways to discourage cigarette purchases.
By L.O.
Plainer packaging and larger images of more threatening visual warnings is most effective at decreasing desire to smoke, study finds. Researchers have determined that increasing the size and scariness factor of a visual warning label can decrease the desire to continue smoking, lower tobacco use, reduce the urge to smoke, and encourage smokers to look for information on quitting.
Smoking is considered a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, with approximately 1 billion people who currently smoke. 6 million people die from smoking-related diseases each year. Because of this, over 100 countries have implemented some public health control policies to deter smoking, such as requiring plainer packaging, and for cigarette packages to be labeled with threatening visual warnings.
The study was conducted through self-reporting surveys of smokers, and measured the muscle twitching responses of some smoker participants with skin electrodes to determine pleasure and arousal when shown different label types.
Researchers tested differences between the size of warnings, use of plain and branded packaging, and moderate to more threatening visual warnings. They found the highest response came from the increase in size of the warning label. With the smaller warning label size, there was little difference in responses between the moderate and more threatening warnings, but with the larger label size, the more threatening visual warnings caused a greater reactions from the participants. The difference between plain packaging and branded packaging also showed more negative reactions to any-sized warning on the plain packaging.
Using larger warning labels over smaller, moderately sized ones was shown to have bigger effect on participants than the difference between plain and branded packaging. Finally, the more threatening a warning label, the more negative feelings about smoking it would produce, which would be more effective at changing smoker behavior.
Droulers, O., Gallopel-Morvan, K., Lacoste-Badie, S., & Lajante, M. (2017). The influence of threatening visual warnings on tobacco packaging: Measuring the impact of threat level, image size, and type of pack through psychophysiological and self-report methods. Plos ONE, 12(9), 1-14. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184415
Please send any questions or comments to Dr. Spitzer (spitzern@marshall.edu )
Note: Any opinions expressed in these articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of Dr. Spitzer, the Department of Biological Sciences, or Marshall University.