Empirical evaluation of the presence of a label containing standard drinks on pour accuracy among US college students

PURPOSE: Alcohol concentration has traditionally been labeled in the form of alcohol by volume (ABV). This format can cause difficulty in evaluating accuracy of a pour because it doesn’t directly connect with recommendations related to “standard drinks,” the approach used by the US CDC and others organizations which intend to facilitate responsible drinking behaviors. Strategies which more directly connect guidelines related to healthy drinking behaviors to alcohol labeling are needed. OBJECTIVE: Assess how a label identifying the number of standard drinks per container impacts the ability of undergraduate students to accurately pour a standard drink. DESIGN: This study employed a 3 x 2 x 2 experimental design. Undergraduates were asked to pour a standard drink from mock products from three alcohol categories (beer, wine and liquor); products were presented in two types of label (traditional ABV vs. standard drinks/container) at two concentrations of alcohol content (high and low). RESULTS: We calculated standardized pour errors (pour errors in standard drink units). Analysis of these standardized pour errors suggested that 1) people tended to underpour beverages of low concentration across product categories and overpour those high in concentration. 2) When the standard drink label was present, pour accuracy was improved, when compared with pours from containers affixed with ABV labels in low alcohol concentrations across all product categories (beer, wine and liquor). 3) For treatments that comprised high concentrations of alcohol, the standard drink label significantly increased accuracy only for beer. However, it is worth noting that beer with an ABV label was the condition with the most dramatic overpours, and these problematic overpours were dramatically reduced by the addition of a standard drink label. CONCLUSIONS: Our work empirically supports the notion that Undergraduate students are better able to accurately assess and pour a standard drink of alcohol from bottles incorporating a label which includes standard drinks/container vs. those with traditional ABV labeling. That said, the effect is quite different for each alcohol category: beer, wine, and liquor and depends on whether the product is high or low in concentration of alcohol for its category; as such, policy makers should consider alcohol categories and concentrations from a public health perspective when recommending changes to labeling.