Can you please put it out? Predicting non-smokers' assertiveness intentions at work.
Eleftherios Aspropoulos1, Lambros Lazuras, Angelos Rodafinos
1City College, International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Tobacco Control
|April 10, 2010
Summary
Non-smoker employees are more likely to ask colleagues not to smoke at work when they believe others do, feel in control, are annoyed by secondhand smoke (SHS), and have prior assertive experiences.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Workplace smoking poses health risks via secondhand smoke (SHS).
- Non-smoker assertiveness in addressing smoking behaviors is crucial for a healthy work environment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify psychosocial predictors of non-smoker employees' intentions to ask smokers not to smoke at work.
- To investigate the influence of past behavior, anticipated regret, social norms, and beliefs within the Attitudes-Social influence-self-Efficacy (ASE) model.
Main Methods:
- Survey data collected from 137 Greek non-smoker employees across 15 companies.
- Assessed assertiveness intention, past smoking behavior, demographics, and workplace smoking policies.
Main Results:
- 77.4% of employees were annoyed by SHS, yet only 37% had recently asked a smoker to refrain.
- Perceived assertiveness of other non-smokers was the strongest predictor of intention.
- Perceived behavioral control, annoyance with SHS, and past assertive behavior also significantly predicted intentions.
Conclusions:
- Non-smoker assertiveness is primarily influenced by normative beliefs, perceived control, SHS annoyance, and past actions.
- Interventions should focus on efficacy training and highlighting peer assertiveness and widespread annoyance with SHS.
Related Concept Videos
01:25Motivational Bias
Cognitive bias results from limitations in thinking and information processing, leading to systematic errors in judgment. Conversely, motivational bias stems from personal desires or emotions, causing distortions in perception to align with self-interest. Motivational bias influences how individuals perceive and attribute causes to events, often shaped by personal needs, goals, and self-esteem preservation. This bias can distort judgment, leading to inaccurate assessments of success, failure,...
01:52Persuasion Strategies
Researchers have tested many persuasion strategies, including the foot-in-the door and the door-in-the-face techniques, in a variety of contexts. Ultimately, the principles are effective in selling products and changing people’s attitude, ideas, and behaviors (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).
01:29Impression Management Techniques III: Aligning Actions
Aligning actions are communicative strategies individuals employ to maintain social harmony and preserve personal identity in the face of potential disruptions to social norms. These actions are particularly important in managing social impressions when one's behavior might be seen as inappropriate, incompetent, or morally questionable.Types of Aligning ActionsThe three principal types of aligning actions are disclaimers, accounts, and apologies.DisclaimersDisclaimers are preventive; they are...
02:05Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
People can go to great lengths to protect their self-image and present themselves in ways that they want others to see them. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy, Goffman believed that we use “impression management” to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present (Goffman, 1959). Think about the way you...
01:08Obedience
According to obedience research, we may harm others under the forceful pressures of an authority figure (Milgram, 1974). How about if the inappropriate orders were delivered with less force? The increasing interdependence between nurses and physicians compelled Hofling and his colleagues to explore nurses’ reactions to a potentially harmful medical request made by the perceived authority figure, the doctor (Hofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple, Graves, & Pierce, 1966). In this situation, obedience...
02:09Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
When we hold a stereotype about a person, we have expectations that he or she will fulfill that stereotype. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. When we hold stereotypes about a person, we tend to treat the person according to our expectations. This treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs. Research by Rosenthal and...