A Combined Explicit, Implicit and Psychophysiological Assessment of Affective Evaluations of Plain Cigarette Packaging in Australia.
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1
The University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Australia
Aims: In 2012 the Australian Government introduced the world's first 'plain cigarette packaging’ legislation designed to reduce the appeal of cigarette packets. In 2013 similar legislation was rejected in the United Kingdom due to the ‘absence of any reliable research demonstrating the effectiveness of plain packaging’. The aim of the present research was to extend this prior research, typically limited to survey or ‘explicit’ measures of affective evaluations (i.e. ‘liking’) of cigarette-packs, by combining these with ‘implicit’ and psychophysiological measures. Method: To achieve this 42 participants completed an online survey and a computer-based version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) where affective responses (pleasant/unpleasant) were recorded to 4 Australian cigarette-pack designs (pre-2004; 2004; 2011; 2012) and where graphic health warnings (GHW) were manipulated using existing GHW images and the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) providing 4 image types (GHW; Pleasant, Unpleasant and Neutral. During the AMP task electromyographic (zygomatic and corrugator), skin conductance and peripheral pulse activity was also recorded. Results: A two-way 4 (Image Type) x 4 (Pack Type) repeated measures GLM analysis of variance were carried separately for the implicit and psychophysiological measures to assess differences in affective responses according to cigarette pack and image type. Both the explicit (survey) and implicit (AMP) measures revealed that image type had a significantly stronger effect on the perceived pleasantness of cigarette packs than pack design, although trends for an interaction for both the explicit and implicit measures were observed. For the psychophysiological measures a more complex pattern of results was found, indicating that psychophysiological measures are sensitive to different aspects of affective processing. Conclusions: The results of the first phase of this research provides a ‘proof of concept’ that affective processing of cigarette packaging is dependent on the nature of the measure used and that graphic health warning images image may be a stronger determinant of cigarette pack appeal than pack design.
Keywords:
cigarette packaging,
Affective Neuroscience,
implicit attitudes,
consumer behaviour,
affective arousal
Conference:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Wollongong, Australia, 20 Nov - 22 Nov, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Emotion
Citation:
Budd
TW,
Argaet
M,
Butt
E,
Harije
S,
Lennon
S,
Martin
E,
Miller
R and
Scade
S
(2013). A Combined Explicit, Implicit and Psychophysiological Assessment of Affective Evaluations of Plain Cigarette Packaging in Australia..
Conference Abstract:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.213.00005
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Received:
01 Nov 2013;
Published Online:
05 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Timothy W Budd, The University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Ourimbah, New South Wales, 2258, Australia, Bill.Budd@newcastle.edu.au