Effects of a 6-second presentation of pictorial warning labels on implicit and explicit alcohol-specific cognitions of adolescents

Aim: To study the immediate effects of alcohol-related warning messages on adolescents. Methods: Two single-factor experimental online studies with 2497 adolescent and young adults aged between 13 and 19 years. In both studies participants received a six seconds exposure to a stimulus before filling out a questionnaire. The stimulus was randomly drawn from three categories: a) youth-specific alcohol warning message; b) conventional picture-based warning label; c) neutral picture without any alcohol reference (control condition). Alcohol-related attitudes and intentions were assessed as direct measures (study 1), implicit affect, social norms, and general (incl. alcohol-specific) risk perceptions as indirect measures (study 2). Results: Exposure to a conventional warning label was associated with a higher subjective likelihood to drink five or more alcoholic beverages on the next weekend, compared to the other two experimental conditions (study 1). Participants in the condition "youth-specific warning message" reported higher general and alcohol-specific risk perceptions compared to participants in the condition,conventional warning label or the control condition (study 2). No differences between the experimental groups were found for alcohol-related attitudes (study 1). Conclusions: A short presentation of picture- and text-based alcohol-related messages seems to have measurable effects on cognitions of adolescents and young adults.