Introduction
DISEASE
Behaviors like alcohol use, smoking, and unhealthy eating are leading contributors to preventable disease and morbidityAlcohol use is a prevalent behaviorThe first popular strategy, mindfulness, involves creating space between a stimulus (e.g., an alcoholic drink) and a person’s natural reaction to itA second strategy to create psychological distance involves perspective-takingOverall, the evidence reviewed above suggests that mindfulness and perspective-taking strategies may reduce drinking by promoting different types of psychological distance. However, less is known about how to effectively integrate these strategies into individuals’ natural environments where pro-drinking influences may be presentWe randomly assigned participants to undergo a brief, in-person mindfulness, perspective-taking, or control training on how to respond to alcohol cues in their everyday life. Next, they received two smartphone reminders according to their respective condition and reported their alcohol use twice daily over the course of 28 days. We manipulated whether participants received psychological distance smartphone reminders (either mindfulness or perspective-taking) vs. control reminders, within-person over four alternating weeks, and examined changes in drinking frequency—the likelihood of having a drinking occasion, and drinking amount—the number of drinks per occasion