Further adaptation of cross-commodity purchase task methodology: The impact of preference rank on demand

A behavioral economic framework of alcohol use posits that alcohol use is a temporally extended pattern of behavior and occurs in contexts in which other response options are available. Hypothetical purchase tasks are based in behavioral economic theory and allow for researchers to pinpoint demand for commodities. An extension of purchase task methodology, cross-commodity tasks examine demand for a substance when two or more commodities are concurrently available. Recent research has extended these tasks to examine the impact of competing activities on alcohol demand. The present study extends this work by examining the extent to which rank-order preference for alternative activities would differentially impact demand for alcohol and serve as substitutes. Participants were crowdsourced via Prolific and completed a rank-order assessment of preference of activities and hobbies, an alcohol purchase task, and measures of suitability and rewarding value of alcohol-related activities. They responded to three separate cross-commodity tasks in which the highest, second-highest, or lowest preferred activity was presented at fixed low cost, while the price of alcohol increased. Results indicated that though rank preference did not impact substitutability of activities for alcohol, demand for alcohol was greater suppressed in the presence of high-preferred than low-preferred activities. Additionally, reported consumption of activities was greatest when the activities were highly preferred. Taken collectively, results highlight the utility of purchase task methodology and demand curve analyses in identifying alternative activities and the need for continued research exploring the functional reinforcing components of alternative activities to incorporate in interventions for hazardous alcohol use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).