Ventsel Minna, Pechey Emily, De-Loyde Katie, Pilling Mark A, Morris Richard W, Maistrello Giulia, Ziauddeen Hisham, Marteau Theresa M, Hollands Gareth J, Fletcher Paul C
Behaviour and Health Research Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, CB2 0SR, Cambridge, UK.
Behaviour and Health Research Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, CB2 0SR, Cambridge, UK.
Appetite. 2022 Aug 1;175:106084. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106084. Epub 2022 May 14.
Health warning labels (HWLs) show promise in reducing motivation towards energy-dense snack foods. Understanding the underlying mechanisms could optimise their effectiveness. In two experimental studies in general population samples (Study 1 n = 90; Study 2 n = 1382), we compared the effects of HWLs and irrelevant aversive labels (IALs) on implicit (approach) motivation towards unhealthy snacks, using an approach-avoidance task (Study 1), and a manikin task (Study 2). We also assessed explicit motivation towards unhealthy snacks using food selection tasks. We examined whether labelling effects on motivation arose from the creation of outcome-dependent associations between the food and its health consequences or from simple, non-specific aversive associations. Both label types reduced motivation towards snack foods but only when the label was physically present. HWLs and IALs showed similar effects on implicit motivation, although HWLs reduced explicit motivation more than IALs. Thus, aversive HWLs appear to act both through low level associative mechanisms affecting implicit motivation, and by additionally emphasizing explicit causal links to health outcomes thereby affecting explicitly motivated choice behaviours.
健康警示标签（HWLs）有望降低人们对高能量零食的购买意愿。了解其潜在机制有助于优化其效果。在两项针对普通人群样本的实验研究中（研究1，n = 90；研究2，n = 1382），我们使用趋避任务（研究1）和人体模型任务（研究2），比较了健康警示标签和无关厌恶标签（IALs）对不健康零食的内隐（趋近）动机的影响。我们还通过食物选择任务评估了对不健康零食的外显动机。我们研究了标签对动机的影响是源于食物与其健康后果之间建立的结果依赖关联，还是源于简单的、非特定的厌恶关联。两种标签类型都降低了对零食的购买意愿，但仅在标签实际存在时才起作用。健康警示标签和无关厌恶标签对内隐动机的影响相似，尽管健康警示标签比无关厌恶标签更能降低外显动机。因此，厌恶型健康警示标签似乎既通过影响内隐动机的低水平关联机制起作用，又通过额外强调与健康结果的明确因果联系从而影响外显动机驱动的选择行为。
