The standardisation of tobacco packaging has been found to decrease the likelihood that an individual smokes. Such healthcare policies are known as ‘nudge’ policies, they change the choice architecture without taking away choices (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008). Forms of “choice architecture” involve: selecting the number of options, selecting the types of options, choosing a particular option as a default, grouping options and making particular attributes of options more salient. By changing the choice architecture, nudge policies aim to "nudge" consumers to make better decisions. This blog post explores how concepts from consumer neuroscience can explain the merits of standardised tobacco packaging.

Findings suggest that the exposure HWLs overtime, increases fluency and familiarity with the packaging, thereby decreasing any initial hesitation associated with the presence of the HWL. Compared with concurrent smokers and vapers, daily smokers, non-daily smokers and quitters were less likely to report having noticed health warning labels (HWLs). Similarly, respondents in England, where HWLs on nicotine vaping products are mandatory, were not significantly more likely to report having noticed such warnings than those in countries where warnings are not mandatory. Although smokers familiar with HWLs did not report noticing them, findings from consumer neuroscience suggest that the information can still have an still be processes subconsciously (Bornstein et al., 1987). Unconscious processing was found to increase familiarity and preference, this effect is termed the ‘mere exposure effect’. When consumers have been previously presented with a product, they have been found to express reduced hesitancy when making purchase decisions (Courbet et al., 2014). Evidently, findings from consumer neuroscience suggest that familiarity with HWLs, reduces their impact in deterring smoking behaviour.

Findings suggest that the anticipatory aspect of negative emotions in response to HWLs can deter smoking behaviour amongst people. Stronger emotional responses to pictorial warnings was found to predict reduced satisfaction during smoking (Romer et al., 2018). Additionally, across different price levels respondents were willing to pay approximately 5% more for a branded pack of tobacco than a standardised packet (Gendall, 2016). Research from consumer neuroscience find immediate and anticipatory emotions to have an increasing influence on behaviour at higher levels of intensity (Lowenstein). As people were willing to pay more for branded packaging, this may reflect aversion to anticipated negative emotional arousal (Lowenstein). Additionally, the firing of dopaminergic neurons in anticipation of a reward, tobacco, may override negative emotions in response to HWLs.

Findings from consumer neuroscience suggest that adolescence may be more prone to smoke than older adults. Galvan et al (2006) found adolescence to have a heightened sensitivity to risk-taking activities and peer social interactions to activate the reward circuitry more. This may explain why adolescence would be more likely to smoke if their peers are smoking. Moreover, older adults are found to have a greater connectivity between control (DLPFC) and valuation (vmPFC) regions, which are believed to explain increased patience and decreased risk-taking activities (Steinbeis et al 2014; Samanez-Larkin & Knutson, 2015). These findings suggest why standardised packaging may fail to deter different age-groups of people. Nudge policies would need to take into account the differences between adolescence and older adults when developing future healthcare policies.