The Effects of Happy Hour Drink Specials in the Alcohol Purchase Task

Abstract

Operant behavioral economics is a discipline within behavioral psychology that integrates concepts and principles from microeconomic theory to examine animal (humans and non-humans alike) behavior. Research in behavioral economics – primarily demand curve analyses – has yielded valuable insights into the role of environmental effects on reinforcer consumption. Demand curve analyses examine how changes in a price of a good affect changes in consumption of that good. Due to practical and ethical concerns, preparations in demand curve analyses have shifted toward using hypothetical purchase tasks, where respondents report the quantity of a good they would be willing to purchase at various prices. There is strong evidence to suggest that happy hour drink specials are associated with undesirable outcomes such as increased amount of drinking, increased likelihood of being highly intoxicated (above the 80 mg/dl legal limit for driving under the influence), and increased likelihood of experiencing negative outcomes related to drinking (e.g., getting into fights). Public policy efforts have been made to ban or at least restrict alcohol drink specials. Drink special policies across the 50 states indicate wide variability, ranging from complete happy hour bans to no bans or restrictions. The purposes of the current experiments are to determine whether self-reported consumption of alcohol on an alcohol purchase task increases when participants imagine a hypothetical “happy hour” scenario and whether there are differences in change in consumption depending on whether participants reside in states with different happy hour restrictions (i.e., whether happy hours are banned). Results from the current experiments extend previous literature on alcohol purchase task vignette manipulations and provide some insight as to whether repealing happy hour bans in states where it is currently banned results in increased alcohol consumption.