Cigarette pack health warnings ‘could encourage people to keep smoking’ : Cigarette packets with serious health warnings could actually encourage people to continue smoking, research suggests.
According to a study, smokers who are continunally confronted with warnings that cigarettes kill actually develop coping mechanisms to justify continuing their habit.
Comparatively, if smokers are shown warnings suggesting the habit could make them unattractive, they are more likely to give up. Teenagers who took up the habit to impress or fit in with their peers were more likely to be influenced by warnings about their appearance, the study found.
“In general, when smokers are faced with death-related anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs, they produce active coping attempts as reflected in their willingness to continue the risky smoking behaviour,” the study said.
“To succeed with anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs one has to take into account that considering their death may make people smoke.”
The study from the United States, Switzerland and Germany, led by Jochim Hansen of New York University and the University of Basel . . .
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found that cigarette packets with death-related warnings were not effective and even caused more positive smoking attitudes.
