Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Study Attention to Alcohol Advertising: A Pilot Study with Emerging Adults

Introduction: Exposure to advertisements for alcohol products is associated with greater alcohol consumption. This is particularly problematic for college students given that 75% of beverage advertisements viewed by this population are for products containing alcohol. The purpose of this study was to objectively assess attention emerging adults pay to alcohol advertising and determine how attention may differ based on product type, socio-demographic variables, and engagement with alcohol-branded merchandise.

Methods: Participants were fifty undergraduate students (51% male, 68% White, m age=20.6 years) at a large, southwestern university. Static advertisements for alcoholic (30 ads) and non-alcoholic (e.g. food, beverages, technology) (20 ads) products were collected. Eye-tracking technology was used to determine the amount of time participants attended to each advertisement (fixation length) and the number of times they fixated on the advertisements (fixation count). Engagement with alcohol-branded merchandise was self-reported with two questions, whether or not the student used or would use items with alcohol logos (e.g. t-shirt). T-tests were conducted to determine if there were significant differences in attention to: 1) advertisements with alcohol products as compared to advertisements with non-alcohol products, 2) alcohol advertisements by race/ethnicity, age, gender, or alcohol use status, and 3) alcohol advertisements by engagement with alcohol-branded merchandise.

 Results: No differences were observed in average time spent attending to an alcohol (M = 7.08 seconds) versus a non-alcohol advertisement (M=6.63 seconds) (p=0.41). Additionally, there were no differences in average fixation length or counts on alcohol and non-alcohol advertisements by socio-demographic characteristics (being under/of age, white/non-white, male/female, or alcohol user/non-user) (p>0.05). However, those who owned alcohol branded items did, on average, fixate significantly more times on alcohol advertisements than those who do not own these products (p=0.02). Mean differences in fixation length approached significance for those who owned alcohol items (p=0.06), as did mean differences in fixation counts for those who would use an alcohol-branded item (p=0.06), as compared to their counterparts.

 Conclusions: While results of this pilot study suggest that students do not pay more attention to alcohol than non-alcohol ads, the small sample may have limited our ability to detect differences. As such, additional research with larger samples is needed. Of note is that alcohol-branded merchandise owners fixate on alcohol advertisements significantly more than their counterparts, suggesting those who affiliate with alcohol products may be more susceptible to alcohol advertising. These findings underscore the important role alcohol-branded merchandise may play in emerging adults’ alcohol use.