Effects of Plain Packaging on Neural Response to Health Warnings

With around two-thirds of current smokers starting to smoke before the age of 18, and half of these dying early as a result of their addiction, preventing young people from smoking is an important public health concern. There is considerable current interest in standardised tobacco packaging as a tobacco control policy measure that may reduce the uptake of smoking in young people.

Standardised packaging would require all cigarettes to be sold in packs with a standardised pack shape, colour and method of opening. All branding would be removed, leaving only the brand name and variant in a standardised font and location, the health warning and other relevant information, such as duty-paid stamps and ingredient information.

Studies being conducted at the University of Bristol’s School of Experimental Psychology by Professor Marcus Munafò, Dr Ute Leonards and Ms Olivia Maynard are the first to employ objective biobehavioural measures, such as eye-tracking, brain imaging and ambulatory monitoring of smoking topography to directly assess the likely impact of plain tobacco packaging on behaviour.

With around two-thirds of current smokers starting to smoke before the age of 18, and half of these dying early as a result of their addiction, preventing young people from smoking is an important public health concern. A number of countries are considering introducing standardised packaging for tobacco to discourage young people from smoking. This would require cigarettes to be sold in packs that would all be the same shape, colour and so on. Branding would be removed and replaced with just the name of the specific brand in standardised lettering. Our research uses various methods to assess the possible impact of standardised packaging on behaviour, such as whether it increases the prominence of health warnings. This research will inform the current debate on standardised packaging.