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Publications
  • November 2021
  • Article
  • Psychological Science

A Salient Sugar Tax Decreases Sugary Drink Buying

By: Grant E. Donnelly, Paige Guge, Ryan Howell and Leslie John
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Abstract

Many governments have introduced sugary drink excise taxes to reduce purchasing and consumption of such drinks; however, they do not typically stipulate how such taxes should be communicated at point-of-purchase. Historical, field, and experimental data entailing over 225,000 purchase decisions indicated that introducing a $0.01/ounce sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) tax—without making it salient on price tags—had no effect on purchasing (-1.26%; p=.28). However, when “Includes Sugary Drink Tax” was added to tax-inclusive price tags, SSB purchasing was lower than: pre-tax (-9.78%; p<. 001); a post-tax period when drinks did not bear price tags (-5.04%; p<.001); and a post-tax period when drinks bore tax-inclusive price tags that did not mention the tax (-3.83%, p=.002). Making the tax’s beneficiary (student programs) salient on price tags had no added effect. Two follow-up experiments suggest that tax-salience was effective partly because consumers overestimate the tax amount, leading to reduced purchase intention.

Keywords

Decision-making; Open Data; Open Materials; Preregistered; Health; Policy; Taxation; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making

Citation

Donnelly, Grant E., Paige Guge, Ryan Howell, and Leslie John. "A Salient Sugar Tax Decreases Sugary Drink Buying." Psychological Science 32, no. 11 (November 2021): 1830–1841.
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About The Author

Leslie K. John

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Reaching for Rigor and Relevance: Better Marketing Research for a Better World By: Shilpa Madan, Gita Venkataramani Johar, Jonah Berger, Pierre Chandon, Rajesh Chandy, Rebecca Hamilton, Leslie John, Aparna Labroo, Peggy J. Liu, John G. Lynch, Nina Mazar, Nicole Mead, Vikas Mittal, Christine Moorman, Michael I. Norton, John Roberts, Dilip Soman, Madhu Viswanathan and Katherine White
  • A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination among Patients with an Upcoming Primary Care Visit By: Mitesh S. Patel, Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Modupe Akinola, John Beshears, Jonathan E. Bogard, Alison Buttenheim, Christopher Chabris, Gretchen B. Chapman, James J. Choi, Hengchen Dai, Craig R. Fox, Amir Goren, Matthew D. Hilchey, Jillian Hmurovic, Leslie John, Dean Karlan, Melanie Kim, David Laibson, Cait Lamberton, Brigitte C. Madrian, Michelle N. Meyer, Maria Modanu, Jimin Nam, Todd Rogers, Renante Rondina, Silvia Saccardo, Maheen Shermohammed, Dilip Soman, Jehan Sparks, Caleb Warren, Megan Weber, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Seung Hyeong Lee, Christopher K. Snider, Eli Tsukayama, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp and Angela L. Duckworth
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