Estimating Uptake for Reduced-nicotine Cigarettes Using Behavioral Economics

Lowering the nicotine content in combustible cigarettes may be a viable strategy for reducing dependence and toxin exposure. Understanding how marketing and education may affect initial uptake is an important avenue of inquiry prior to any policy change. There has yet to be an investigation of how framing reductions in nicotine may affect intentions to purchase and consume these cigarettes using the behavioral economic framework.

Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk completed several tasks, including the Cigarette Purchase Task and Experimental Tobacco Marketplace, under conditions in which a new, reduced-nicotine cigarette alternative is the only cigarette available.

Cigarette purchasing was largely unaffected by stated nicotine concentration, but lower concentrations suggested the potential of small estimated compensatory purchasing. Exposure to a narrative detailing how others have perceived the negative subjective effects of lower nicotine cigarettes (eg, less satisfaction) significantly reduced the perceived value of cigarettes.

These results suggest information about nicotine content alone is unlikely to reduce initial uptake without accompanying narratives about the effects of this reduced-nicotine content.