Psychological motives versus health concerns: predicting smoking attitudes and promoting antismoking attitudes

This article describes findings from 2 studies of smoking attitudes and behavior among Taiwanese adolescents. In the first, a survey, the motivations to gain positive external rewards, enhance positive internal affect, and reduce negative internal affect were all found to predict positive attitudes toward smoking, the intention to smoke, and actual smoking behavior. Concern for short-term health consequences was negatively associated with these outcomes (although concern for long-term consequences was not). In the 2nd study, smokers responded more defensively to ad messages arguing against psychological rewards from smoking than to health-consequence messages, and actually had more positive attitudes toward their own smoking behavior after viewing the antirewards ads. In contrast, nonsmokers responded more favorably to ads arguing against the psychological rewards of smoking than to ads highlighting health consequences, and also strengthened their antismoking attitudes after exposure to the ads that downplayed psychological rewards. Implications for antismoking campaigns are discussed.