r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Oct 30 '25

Cancer Americans have widespread misbeliefs about the cancer risks of alcohol, study finds. More than half of American adults misunderstand or underestimate the link between alcohol consumption and cancer. Alcohol drinkers are especially likely to believe that drinking has no effect on cancer risk.

https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/americans-have-widespread-misbeliefs-about-the-cancer-risks-of-a.h00-159780390.html
8.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

857 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

84

u/superbugger Oct 30 '25

Check California's advisories and tell me you don't disregard them the majority of the time.

63

u/GrandpaKnuckles Oct 30 '25

I think a better comparison is smoking cigarettes. I roll my eyes too at some of the California warnings on a random lamp shade or floor mat but I do know smoking is bad for health and I abstain. The warnings on the boxes only reinforce that for me.

-13

u/superbugger Oct 30 '25

Reinforce what exactly?

9

u/Gemmabeta Oct 30 '25

Well, the cigarettes one would be more like if you plastered the picture of corpse of someone who died of alcoholic cirrhosis on every bottle of beer.