A recent research has revealed that plain tobacco packaging has the potential to reduce the likelihood of smokers seeking to obtain cigarettes by almost 10% compared to branded packs.
The Universities of Exeter and Bristol released the findings in the midst of an ongoing debate over whether a new law introducing plain cigarette packaging in England and Wales would be introduced in 2016.
Ministers had said last month that following a series of public consultations, MPs would be asked to vote on the plan before the general elections in May.
The University of Exeter said that as a part of the experiment, smokers were asked to choose between pressing a key that might earn cigarettes or a key that might earn chocolate and were unsure about which key was most likely to pay off in each trial.
Just prior to each participant making their choice, they were presented with either a picture of a branded cigarette pack, a picture of a plain cigarette pack or nothing.
Following the experiment, it was found that while branded packs increased the probability of participants choosing cigarette by 10% to when nothing was presented, the plain packs did not which implies that plain packs are less effective at making smokers to buy cigarettes than branded packs.
Lead author of the study from the University of Exeter associate professor of Psychology Lee Hogarth said: "The key finding was that plain cigarette packs were about 10% less likely to prompt participants to make the tobacco choice compared to branded packs. .
"In fact, the plain packs promoted no more tobacco choice than when nothing was presented. These findings provide experimental support for the idea that introducing plain packaging might reduce tobacco purchasing or consumption."
While the academics said that the study demonstrated that plain packaging had the potential of reducing cigarette-seeking behavior under some circumstances, they also advised caution towards interpreting the results.
Co-author of the study from the University of Bristol Professor Marcus Munafo said: "The experimental procedure only modelled the ability of pack stimuli to promote a cigarette-seeking choice. In the natural environment, smoking may be governed by a whole range of factors, including tobacco withdrawal, the presence of other people smoking, time of day, and so on."
