The impact and acceptability of Canadian-style cigarette warning labels among U.S. smokers and nonsmokers.

Cigarette smoking is a major source of mortality and medical costs in the United States. More graphic and salient warning labels on cigarette packs as used in Canada may help to reduce smoking initiation and increase quit attempts. However, the labels also may lead to defensive reactions among smokers. In an experimental setting, smokers and nonsmokers were exposed to Canadian or U.S. warning labels. Compared with current U.S. labels, Canadian labels produced more negative affective reactions to smoking cues and to the smoker image among both smokers and nonsmokers without signs of defensive reactions from smokers. A majority of both smokers and nonsmokers endorsed the use of Canadian labels in the United States. Canadian-style warnings should be adopted in the United States as part of the country's overall tobacco control strategy.

[1]  G. Kok,et al.  Saying is not (always) doing: cigarette warning labels are useless. , 2005, European journal of public health.

[2]  Dennis M. Donovan,et al.  Relapse prevention: Maintenance strategies in the treatment of addictive behaviors, 2nd ed. , 2005 .

[3]  Global tobacco treaty enters into force with 57 countries already committed. , 2005, Indian journal of medical sciences.

[4]  Feeling and Thinking Preferences Need , 2005 .

[5]  Jennifer J. Argo,et al.  Meta-Analyses of the Effectiveness of Warning Labels , 2004 .

[6]  G. Fong,et al.  The Impact of Cigarette Warning Labels and Smoke-free Bylaws on Smoking Cessation , 2004, Canadian Journal of Public Health.

[7]  Melissa L. Finucane,et al.  Risk as Analysis and Risk as Feelings: Some Thoughts about Affect, Reason, Risk, and Rationality , 2004, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[8]  G. Fong,et al.  Impact of the graphic Canadian warning labels on adult smoking behaviour , 2003, Tobacco control.

[9]  Michael A. Olson,et al.  Implicit measures in social cognition. research: their meaning and use. , 2003, Annual review of psychology.

[10]  Judith H Hibbard,et al.  Supporting informed consumer health care decisions: data presentation approaches that facilitate the use of information in choice. , 2003, Annual review of public health.

[11]  G. Mahood.  Canada's Tobacco Package Label or Warning System: "Telling the Truth" about Tobacco Product Risks , 2003 .

[12]  R. Zajonc.  Mere Exposure: A Gateway to the Subliminal , 2001 .

[13]  Charles Abraham,et al.  Scary warnings and rational precautions: A review of the psychology of fear appeals , 2001 .

[14]  R. Fazio,et al.  PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Fazio, Hilden / EMOTIONAL REACTIONS TO A PREJUDICED RESPONSE Emotional Reactions to a Seemingly Prejudiced Response: The Role of Automatically Activated Racial Attitudes and Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions , 2001 .

[15]  K. W. Harris,et al.  Reviews of evidence regarding interventions to reduce tobacco use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. , 2001, American journal of preventive medicine.

[16]  D. Romer,et al.  The role of perceived risk in starting and stopping smoking. , 2001 .

[17]  M. Allen,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns , 2000, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[18]  R W Pollay,et al.  Targeting youth and concerned smokers: evidence from Canadian tobacco industry documents , 2000, Tobacco control.

[19]  Robert B. Zajonc,et al.  Feeling and thinking: Closing the debate over the independence of affect. , 2000 .

[20]  J. Forgas.  Feeling and thinking : the role of affect in social cognition , 2000 .

[21]  A. Copeland,et al.  Expectancies for tobacco smoking. , 1999 .

[22]  T N Robinson,et al.  Do cigarette warning labels reduce smoking? Paradoxical effects among adolescents. , 1997, Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine.

[23]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  WARNING! Sign and Label Effectiveness , 1996 .

[24]  E. Gilpin,et al.  An improved surveillance measure for adolescent smoking? , 1995, Tobacco Control.

[25]  Sean A. Spence,et al.  Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain , 1995 .

[26]  Richard W. Pollay,et al.  Targeting Tactics in Selling Smoke: Youthful Aspects of 20th Century Cigarette Advertising , 1995 .

[27]  S. Epstein.  Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious. , 1994, The American psychologist.

[28]  R. Bonnie,et al.  Growing up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youths , 1994 .

[29]  Richard J. Fox,et al.  An evaluation of health warnings in cigarette advertisements using standard market research methods: what does it mean to warn? , 1993 .

[30]  R. Zajonc,et al.  Affect, cognition, and awareness: affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. , 1993, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[31]  J. W. Richards,et al.  Recall and eye tracking study of adolescents viewing tobacco advertisements. , 1989, JAMA.

[32]  D J Rohsenow,et al.  Relevance of cue reactivity to understanding alcohol and smoking relapse. , 1988, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[33]  P. Slovic.  Perception of risk. , 1987, Science.

[34]  A. Washton,et al.  Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors , 1986 .

[35]  ROBERT W. Johnson,et al.  Healthy people. , 1985, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[36]  R. Zajonc.  Feeling and thinking : Preferences need no inferences , 1980 .

[37]  M. Haire.  Projective Techniques in Marketing Research , 1950 .