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Category: Project

Description: Alcohol consumption is detrimental to health and intervention strategies to reduce alcohol consumption without conscious effort (called ‘nudging’ or 'choice architecture') have wide public health appeal. However, there have been few direct examinations of ‘nudging’ in relation to alcohol consumption. There is robust evidence that a reduction in the portion size of food reduces energy intake. Therefore, a reduction in the serving size of alcohol might lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption. In a recent laboratory study, we demonstrated that smaller serving sizes of alcohol reduced participants' alcohol consumption over a one-hour drinking period in a semi-naturalistic environment. The study results suggested that participants did not feel motivated to compensate for the reduced drink volume by ordering more drinks. However, it is possible that compensation would only occur over a longer drinking period than investigated. Additionally, it is possible that participants would have liked to consume more alcohol, but felt it was inappropriate in the laboratory setting. Therefore, we want to conduct the current study to address these limitations. In this study, we want to investigate the effect of reduced alcohol serving sizes (compared to standard serving sizes) over a longer period (3 hours) in a natural environment (on pub quiz nights in Liverpool pubs).