Among experimenters and weekly smokers, plain packaging increases visual attention to health warnings and away from branding. Daily smokers, even relatively early in their smoking careers, seem to avoid the health warnings on cigarette packs. Adolescent never-smokers attend the health warnings preferentially on both types of packs, a finding which may reflect their decision not to smoke.

Smokers actively avoid cigarette pack health warnings, and this remains the case even in the absence of salient branding information. Smokers may have learned to divert their attention away from cigarette pack health warnings. These findings have implications for cigarette packaging and health warning policy.

Psychological and neurobiological evidence implicates hippocampal-dependent memory processes in the control of hunger and food intake. In humans, these have been revealed in the hyperphagia that is associated with amnesia. However, it remains unclear whether ‘memory for recent eating’ plays a significant role in neurologically intact humans. In this study we isolated the extent to which memory for a recently consumed meal influences hunger and fullness over a three-hour period. Before lunch, half of our volunteers were shown 300 ml of soup and half were shown 500 ml. Orthogonal to this, half consumed 300 ml and half consumed 500 ml. This process yielded four separate groups (25 volunteers in each). Independent manipulation of the ‘actual’ and ‘perceived’ soup portion was achieved using a computer-controlled peristaltic pump. This was designed to either refill or draw soup from a soup bowl in a covert manner. Immediately after lunch, self-reported hunger was influenced by the actual and not the perceived amount of soup consumed. However, two and three hours after meal termination this pattern was reversed - hunger was predicted by the perceived amount and not the actual amount. Participants who thought they had consumed the larger 500-ml portion reported significantly less hunger. This was also associated with an increase in the ‘expected satiation’ of the soup 24-hours later. For the first time, this manipulation exposes the independent and important contribution of memory processes to satiety. Opportunities exist to capitalise on this finding to reduce energy intake in humans.

HighlightsDrinkers underestimated the number of drinks that constituted 14 units.Unit understanding was greater for novel unit labels compared to industry labels.Motivation to drink less was higher for cancer and negatively-framed messages.

ObjectivesTo examine whether during a period of limited e-cigarette regulation and rapid growth in their use, smoking began to become renormalised among young people.DesignInterrupted time-series analysis of repeated cross-sectional time-series data.SettingGreat BritainParticipants248 324 young people aged approximately 13 and 15 years, from three national surveys during the years 1998–2015.InterventionUnregulated growth of e-cigarette use (following the year 2010, until 2015).Outcome measuresPrimary outcomes were prevalence of self-reported ever smoking and regular smoking. Secondary outcomes were attitudes towards smoking. Tertiary outcomes were ever use of cannabis and alcohol.ResultsIn final models, no significant change was detected in the pre-existing trend for ever smoking (OR 1.01, CI 0.99 to 1.03). There was a marginally significant slowing in the rate of decline for regular smoking (OR 1.04, CI 1.00 to 1.08), accompanied by a larger slowing in the rate of decline of cannabis use (OR 1.21, CI 1.18 to 1.25) and alcohol use (OR 1.17, CI 1.14 to 1.19). In all models and subgroup analyses for smoking attitudes, an increased rate of decline was observed after 2010 (OR 0.88, CI 0.86 to 0.90). Models were robust to sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsThere was a marginal slowing in the decline in regular smoking during the period following 2010, when e-cigarettes were emerging but relatively unregulated. However, these patterns were not unique to tobacco use and the decline in the acceptability of smoking behaviour among youth accelerated during this time. These analyses provide little evidence that renormalisation of youth smoking was occurring during a period of rapid growth and limited regulation of e-cigarettes from 2011 to 2015.Trial registration numberResearch registry number: researchregistry4336

BackgroundWe examined whether enhancing self-affirmation among a population of drinkers, prior to viewing threatening alcohol pictorial health warning labels, would reduce defensive reactions and promote reactions related to behaviour change. We also examined how health warning severity influences these reactions and whether there is an interaction between self-affirmation and severity.MethodsIn this experimental human laboratory study, participants (n = 128) were randomised to a self-affirmation or control group. After the self-affirmation manipulation was administered, we tracked participants’ eye movements while they viewed images of six moderately-severe and six highly-severe pictorial health warning labels presented on large beer cans. Self-reported responses to the pictorial health warning labels were then measured, including avoidance, reactance, effectiveness, susceptibility and motivation to drink less. Finally, participants reported their self-efficacy to drink less and their alcohol use.ResultsThere was no clear evidence that enhancing self-affirmation influenced any outcome. In comparison to moderately-severe health warnings, highly-severe health warnings increased avoidance and reactance and were perceived as more effective and increased motivation to drink less.ConclusionsThese findings call into question the validity of the self-affirmation manipulation, which is purported to reduce defensive reactions to threatening warnings. We discuss possible explanations for this null effect, including the impact of participants’ low perceived susceptibility to the risks shown on these pictorial health warning labels. Our finding that highly-severe health warnings increase avoidance and reactance but are also perceived as being more effective and more likely to motivate people to drink less will inform future health warning design and have implications for health warning label theory.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-6243-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

AimsTo gain insight into the potential impact of plain tobacco packaging policy, two experiments were undertaken to test whether ‘prototype’ plain compared with branded UK cigarette pack stimuli would differentially elicit instrumental tobacco-seeking in a nominal Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT) procedure.Design, Setting and ParticipantsTwo experiments were undertaken at the University of Bristol UK, with a convenience sample of adult smokers (experiment 1, n = 23, experiment 2, n = 121).MeasurementIn both experiments, smokers were trained on a concurrent choice procedure in which two responses earned points for cigarettes and chocolate, respectively, before images of branded and plain packs were tested for capacity to elicit the tobacco-seeking response in extinction. The primary outcome was percentage choice of the tobacco- over the chocolate-seeking response in plain pack, branded pack and no-stimulus conditions.FindingsBoth experiments found that branded packs primed a greater percentage of tobacco-seeking (overall mean = 62%) than plain packs (overall mean = 53%) and the no-stimulus condition (overall mean = 52%; Ps ≤ 0.01, ŋp2s ≥ 0.16), and that there was no difference in percentage tobacco-seeking between plain packs and the no-stimulus condition (Ps ≥ 0.17, ŋp2s ≤ 0.04). Plain tobacco packs showed an overall 9% reduction in the priming of a tobacco choice response compared to branded tobacco packs.ConclusionsPlain packaging may reduce smoking in current smokers by degrading cue-elicited tobacco-seeking.

AimsTo investigate the impact of unit and calorie information on drinking behaviour in an ad libitum taste test paradigm.MethodsIn this experimental human laboratory study, participants were randomized to one of four conditions, balanced by gender, using a 2 (unit information: present vs. absent) × 2 (calorie information: present vs. absent) between-subjects design. The percentage of beer consumed during the taste test was the primary outcome measure.ResultsAmong this largely undergraduate student population, we found no evidence that either unit or calorie information impacted alcohol consumption in an ad libitum taste test. A manipulation check indicated that few of the participants receiving either unit and/or calorie information could accurately recall the number of units and/or calories in the beverages provided to them, indicating low levels of engagement with this information. Analysis of qualitative reactions to calorie and unit labelling indicated possible negative unintended consequences of calorie and unit information, including using unit information to facilitate consumption of higher strength beverages, and calorie information to reduce food consumption prior to a drinking episode.ConclusionWe find no evidence to support an effect of unit or calorie information, a public-health initiative supported by the alcohol industry, on drinking behaviour. It is possible that compulsory unit and calorie labelling, at least in the numeric format used here, would have no effect on alcohol intake and may even have some negative unintended consequences among certain populations.