Warnings on Cigarette Packs Could Work in the Opposite Way

In conformity with a recent research, smokers who permanently encounter vivid warnings stating that smoking can provoke health complications and even death, actually create mental strategies to vindicate keeping their pernicious habit.
In contrast, if smokers see warnings saying that smoking may make them less handsome, it will more likely encourage them to quit. Adolescents who started smoking in order to look cool or correspond with their friends were two-times more affected by warnings related to their attractiveness, the research showed.
Therefore, the scientists found out that many smokers are not frightened by death warnings and are likely to continue puffing, since they would anyway perish away. The research said that on average, if smokers face anti-smoking warnings related to probably death, they develop overcoming strains shown in their readiness to proceed along with their dangerous habit.
The research concludes that in order to make smokers want to give up after seeing anti-smoking messages on the packs, it is necessary investigating smokers’ response to death and disease warnings and other messages that are able to frighten them.
The research was carried out by psychologists from three universities located in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. It was led by Joachim Hansen, Psychology Professor at the New York University. The research was based on the survey of 40 students aged 17-40, who admitted to be smokers.
Students answered specially selected questions demonstrating how much their habit was related to self-esteem. After that, they were shown various warnings on  cigarette packs.

Students were divided into two groups – one group was shown messages related to likeable diseases and death, whereas the second group read warnings about inevitable changes in their physical appearance.
Then, the participants were given a break, after which they were given another questionnaire about possible changes in their attitude to the habit and whether they were willing to give up smoking.
The research, appeared in the latest issue of the American Journal of Experimental Psychology, showed that packs with warnings related with diseases and death were less efficient and even provoked a more positive feedback.
In contrast messages not related to death were much more efficient in changing participants’ attitudes to their habit. Prof. Hansen said that messages such as “Smoking makes people ugly” are much more effective among young people, since they took up cigarettes thinking that namely smoking would make them feel worthy by their peers or increase their self-confidence.
However, public health officials argued the results of that research, saying that reliable data collected across the globe showed that different groups of people react differently to the anti-smoking messages on the packs, but death-related warnings have proven to be the most effective.