Effects of Reading Newspaper Articles about Smoking on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes

• In Event: Antismoking Health Messages and News

Abstract

There is often a conflict between rational, overtly expressed thought and impulsive desire, especially in tempting situations. This is the reason why a change in explicit thought does not guarantee behavior change. Unlike dominant theories of health behavior focusing only on reflective precursors of behavior, more recently developed dual-process models additionally include impulsive precursors of behavior. Indeed, research has revealed that both reflective and impulsive precursors guide health behavior. We tested the consequences of reading journalistic articles highlighting negative consequences of tobacco smoking on reflective and impulsive precursors of health behavior. Using an experiment (N = 671), we tested reading effects on overtly expressed evaluations of smoking (i.e., explicit attitudes) as a reflective precursor consistent with dominant theories of reasoned action. Furthermore, and as the primary contribution of the present study, we also investigated whether reading can influence automatic affective reactions toward smoking (i.e., implicit attitudes) as an impulsive precursor. We found that the reading of negative smoking articles strengthened the negativity of explicit and implicit attitudes toward smoking. We discuss implications for prevention and argue that intervention strategies may be most effective when targeting both explicit and implicit attitude change.

Author

• Florian Arendt, U of Munich (LMU)