Will the UK’s new alcohol guidelines change hearts, minds—and livers?

New guidelines from the UK chief medical officers aim to provide citizens with accurate information about the risks to health of alcohol, to allow them to make informed choices.1 Will they succeed? Only time, coupled with robust evaluations, will tell.

Might the guidelines also change how much alcohol we consume as a nation to the betterment of our health? Two routes by which guidelines might change actual consumption are a direct one, by persuading drinkers to drink less, and an indirect one, by altering social attitudes towards alcohol, increasing the public’s and in turn the political acceptability of policies that reduce alcohol consumption.