Table 2.

Dark Nudges and Sludge in Alcohol Industry–Funded CSR ^a

Class	Intervention Type (Based on TIPPME Description Where Applicable)	AI CSR Example
Placement	Availability Add, remove, or physically obscure relevant information to increase, decrease, or alter its range, variety, or amount	Positioning of information on risk of breast cancer and pregnancy in Drinkaware materials and website; for example, where information about significant health harms is placed well below trivia. (The placement of the information may also mean that it is undermined by dilution and framing; see below.)
	Position Alter the position, proximity, or accessibility of health‐related information	Placing warning labels on the back of products, at the bottom of labels, or on disposable packaging;36 placing website information “below the fold”; using difficult‐to‐read color/text/font combinations; placing pregnancy warnings below long sections of nonhealth trivia. 31
	Omission Omission of relevant information, leading the reader to assume that they have been given complete information (WYSIATI)	Avoiding mention of cancer on AI “health” websites; 5 noninclusion of women in the Drinkaware Ireland infographic, meaning that breast cancer is not included. 37
Properties	Functionality Alter functionality or design of information materials and websites/webpages to change how they work or to guide or constrain how people use or physically interact with them: “Requiring even small amounts of effort (‘friction costs’) can make it much less likely that a behavior will happen.” 23 (p4)	Making websites or webpages less functional to make them more difficult to interact with; making it more difficult to access health information by requiring registration processes/supply of personal information; requiring users to scroll through many pages to get to pregnancy and cancer information, for example, on the DrinkIQ website users have to scroll down four pages to read the health information; placing information on alcohol's effects on the body “below the fold,” requiring users to page down and click on a link, taking them to a page where they have to page down again to get to the health harms, including breast cancer; placing statements about the benefits of drinking above information about harms: “The social benefits are immediate – especially when keeping the amount you consume within the recommended limit. It's a great social lubricant, and when paired with food it can enhance celebratory occasions.”38 (Also see framing, below.) Some AI‐funded organizations require users to order information and to complete online forms. Other sites use multiple split moving screens; moving information makes navigating the health/consumption sections difficult. (See, for example, Bacardi‐Martini: https://www.slowdrinking.com/us/en/#first.) Information overload—providing so much factual information that it may be difficult to process or difficult to find the most relevant information (e.g., inclusion of large amount of minor and trivial information on industry websites, swamping or displacing information on major health harms).
	Presentation Alter visual properties of information (e.g., on webpages or documents)	Placing health warning labels in very small font and in difficult‐to‐read color combinations;36 using difficult‐to‐read color/text/font combinations in printed or web material (e.g., black on purple text in a Drinkaware breast cancer leaflet).
	Size Alter size or shape of products	Single drink cans that exceed daily alcohol consumption guidelines; use of larger wine glasses as default serving.
	Information Add, remove, or change words, symbols, numbers, or pictures that convey information about the product, its use, or risks	Noninclusion of chief medical officers’ health information on alcohol products.
Misinformation strategies: undermining, subverting, or contradicting health messages through ordering and sequencing of the messages, by placing alongside counter‐messages, or by using other wording, arguments, and/or images to undermine the health message or make it more difficult to interpret; may also involve denialism and use of pseudoscientific language/arguments.	Priming (Not in TIPPME) Use of words, symbols, images, or numbers to prime drinking	Use of written cues to drink: “Didn't drink at all during January and looking forward to drinks tonight?”; “It's tradition to ring in the New Year with a glass of bubbly, but what's in champagne?”; “Blue Monday research shows that many drink alcohol to forget their problems, cheer themselves up when in a bad mood and because it helps when they feel depressed or nervous” (Drinkaware39‐41).
		Priming drinkers by offering verbal and pictorial cues to drink, sometimes while simultaneously appearing to warn about harms, as in Drinkaware Twitter messaging. 34 Alcohol‐free drinks may also involve priming: the branding, design, bottles, and location in the supermarket send stimuli that remind the drinker of drinking alcohol.
	Framing (Not in TIPPME) “Large changes in preferences …are sometimes caused by inconsequential variations in … wording.” 15	AI‐funded websites frequently frame information on alcohol in terms of the benefits, even when discussing harms (e.g., Éduc'alcool frames health information in terms of benefits of alcohol consumption on its webpage on “the 8 benefits of moderate drinking,” mentioning no specific health risks.42 AI materials often frame health information in terms of uncertainty and complexity, and offer alternative explanations for alcohol harms: “There are many other factors that increase the risk of developing breast cancer, some of which we can't control like: Age: you're more likely to develop it as you get older; A family history of breast cancer; Being tall; A previous benign breast lump. However, in addition to alcohol, other lifestyle factors such as being overweight and smoking are thought to increase your risk of developing breast cancer” (Drinkaware). 5
	Positioning and sequencing (Not in TIPPME)	Information on harms on AI websites is often positioned below information on benefits; for example, Diageo's “DrinkIQ” website places information on breast cancer below statements emphasizing social and other benefits, such as “It's a great social lubricant, and when paired with food it can enhance celebratory occasions.”38
	Stimulus incompatibility Incompatibility between images (or characteristics of images) and wording or messaging; we expect the signals we receive to be compatible with the action they intend us to take. If they are not, information is more difficult to process, and that processing is error‐prone.	CSR messages that appear to warn readers about consumption, placed alongside trivia about alcohol, may involve stimulus incompatibility (in addition to distraction, dilution, framing, and other biases). The Drinkaware “Drink Free” days campaign messaging shows a woman having fun in the swimming pool, alongside upbeat music. The spelling and spacing of the phrase “Enjoy more Drink Free” (as opposed to “Drink‐Free”) may, however, convey a pro‐drinking message. The clear separation of the words “Enjoy more” from “Drink Free,” in addition to the different coloring of the word “Days,” may prompt the reader to break these phrases into two separate messages, and thus interpret the message as “Enjoy more: Drink free.” Thus, “Drink Free” has a dual meaning, including “Drink freely.”43
	Dilution effects Consumers tend to “average” out risks, including the minor ones. This paradoxically “dampens” consumers’ judgments of overall severity and risk.	AI websites often including a wide range of minor and trivial effects of alcohol alongside (and sometimes displacing) severe harms. This may result in dilution effects (as well as framing and positioning effects). For example, the Drinkaware website includes information on “Why does alcohol make you pee more?” alongside (and placed well before) information on fetal alcohol syndrome.
	Social norming/social proof (Not in TIPPME) Providing information on the behavior of others to guide our behaviors, regardless of the desirability/undesirability of that behavior	“Today's the day when people most commonly give up on their Dry January efforts” and “On holiday, everybody loves to drink, you're in a good vibe, the alcohol's cheaper, that's always going to happen” (Drinkaware44,45).

Abbreviations: AI, alcohol industry; CSR, corporate social responsibility; TIPPME, Typology of Interventions in Proximal Physical Micro‐Environments, WYSIATI, what you see is all there is.

^aNote that some well‐known biases and heuristics are not included; for example, the base‐rate fallacy and loss aversion.