Emotional Responses to Cigarette Warning Labels and Their Implications for Perceived Risk and Quitting Intentions: An Experimental Study

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: Research on Communication and Marketing Effects to Inform Tobacco Regulation

Abstract

We evaluated the association of discrete emotions evoked by exposure to new pictorial warning labels on cigarettes with perceived effectiveness of warning labels, perceived harm of smoking, and intentions to quit. In an online study, 2,700 US adult smokers, non-smokers, and transitioning smokers (n=900 each) saw either high-emotion warnings, low-emotion warnings, or current US cigarette warnings (control). Controlling for demographics, pre-exposure quit intentions and experimental condition, anger and confusion were negatively associated with perceived effectiveness, while guilt, worry, and hope were positively associated. Perceived harm of smoking was negatively related to feeling angry, confused, or amused and positively with feeling sad, guilty, disgusted, or hopeful. Current smokers who felt angry or confused had less intentions to quit smoking, but hope and shame were positive predictors of intentions to quit. Warning labels and other anti-tobacco messages should evoke hope and try to reduce anger and confusion to motivate smokers to quit.

Authors

• Lucy Popova, Georgia State University

• Daniel Owusu, Georgia State U