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An Initial Investigation of the Effects of Tanning-Related Cues on Demand and Craving for Indoor Tanning

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Abstract

Melanoma and other skin cancers have become the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. Despite the well-established link between skin cancer and indoor tanning, approximately 30 million Americans report engaging in indoor tanning each year, and the majority of these users are white females aged 16 to 29 years. Although some studies have suggested that exposure to ultraviolet radiation may produce reinforcing effects in frequent tanners paralleling the characteristic features of substance use disorders, no previous study has explored the impact of tanning-related cues on demand for tanning. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of tanning-related cues on participants’ behavioral economic demand and craving for indoor tanning. Participants were 23 undergraduate students (22 females, one male), each of whom underwent a cue-exposure procedure consisting of experiencing neutral- and tanning-related cues. Results suggest that participants exhibited an increase in behavioral economic demand and self-reported craving in the condition associated with tanning-related cues relative to neutral-cues. We conclude by discussing notable limitations and offering directions for future research.

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Notes

  1. There is evidence to suggest that ultraviolet radiation may have automatically reinforcing properties, particularly when ultraviolet radiation induces endorphin and opioid secretion (Feldman et al., 2004; Gambichler, Bader, Vojvodic, Avermaete, Schenk, Altmeyer, & Hoffmann, 2002; Kaur et al., 2006, Kourosh, Harrington, & Adinoff, 2010).

  2. Although Feldman et al. (2004) and Kaur et al. (2006) reported recruiting participants that have tanned 8-15 times a month (frequent tanners) or having used tanning beds no more than 12 times in a year (infrequent tanners), the inclusionary criteria was much less restrictive in the current study due to its exploratory nature and the goals of investigating changes in demand and craving for tanning.

  3. The CAGE was initially designed to screen for alcohol dependence (Aertgeerts, Buntinx, & Kester, 2004), and is composed of four criteria: whether participants (1) report being told to Cut-down the consumption of the commodity, (2) feel Annoyed when others comment about their consumption, (3) have felt Guilty for consuming the commodity, and (4) use the commodity as an Eye-opener (i.e., consume the commodity upon waking).

  4. The upper boundary was set to 30 to reflect the maximum number of tanning sessions in a 30-day period as per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulation that prohibits individuals from engaging in IT more than once in a 24-hr period (http://www.fda.gov/radiation- emittingproducts/radiationemittingproductsandprocedures/tanning/default.htm).

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Acknowledgements

The current study was conducted by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree in Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas.

The first author expresses sincere gratitude to Florence D. DiGennaro Reed, Brent A. Kaplan, Gideon P. Naudé, Bryan T. Yanagita, and Rachel E. Jackson for their valuable feedback and guidance on previous versions of this paper.

This project was supported by the University of Kansas New Faculty General Research Fund allocation #2302290 and General Research Fund allocation #2301722. The third author’s contributions were supported by the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research.

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  1. Department of Applied Behavioral Science, University of Kansas, 4048 Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Amel Becirevic & Derek D. Reed

  2. Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Michael Amlung

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  1. Amel Becirevic
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  3. Michael Amlung
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Correspondence to Derek D. Reed.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The University of Kansas Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Committee approved the protocol used in this study (approval #HSCL1355).

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Participants indicated consent by completing a consent form and clicking a button in the online survey to initiate the study tasks. The University of Kansas Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Committee approved the informed consent method used in this study (approval #HSCL1355).

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Becirevic, A., Reed, D.D. & Amlung, M. An Initial Investigation of the Effects of Tanning-Related Cues on Demand and Craving for Indoor Tanning. Psychol Rec 67, 149–160 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-017-0246-z

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