My research is on smoking risk perceptions. The mechanism here is not really explained by cognitive dissonance but by optimistic bias. Smokers know that it is dangerous to smoke. They also believe that children or young adults should not smoke and they wish they had not started themselves. However, they also believe that smoking is not that bad (at least not as bad as non-smokers and researchers think it is) and most importantly that they are exempt from the negative consequences of smoking. So they think that bad things might happen to other smokers but not to themselves.
So the children (in the video) remind the smokers that they too are vulnerable. Overwhelmingly those types of "you're at risk too" interventions are quite ineffective. Despite years of research no interventions have actually decreased this optimistic bias (for smokers or other risks). There are many factors that change the optimistic bias (such as personal experience with negative outcomes) but generally "lecturing", explaining or perspective taking has no effect. I imagine that many of these smokers will take a moment to reflect on why they would not recommend smoking to others (especially children), but then proceed with smoking. Of course smoking is highly addictive so one moment of intervention would be unlikely to have much effect anyway. Marie Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Marc Carter [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:58 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Smoking Ad and Cognitive Dissonance I have a dim recollection of a study (described in the 1st edition of Mynatt & Doherty) in which the researchers had smokers describe the bad effects of smoking, and there were measurable decreases in smoking 6 months out -- and I'm assuming there was a debrief (although if an old study, there might not have been). I wish I still had a copy of the 1st edition; it's better than the 2nd.... Does anyone else recall such a study? I'll look it up and see if there was a debrief. m -- Marc Carter, PhD Associate Professor of Psychology Chair, Department of Behavioral and Health Sciences College of Arts & Sciences Baker University -- > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Clark [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:14 AM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: Re: [tips] Smoking Ad and Cognitive Dissonance > > Hi > > Sounds like it would take a study to answer this question, no? > > I'm always dismayed when I see "contests" for the best anti-whatever > ads, sometimes solicited from high school students. The government > then adopts them, without determining empirically whether or not they > are actually effective or, even worse, whether they actually promote > the behavior they are trying to limit. > > Take care > Jim > > > > James M. Clark > Professor of Psychology > 204-786-9757 > 204-774-4134 Fax > [email protected] > > >>> Michael Britt <[email protected]> 21-Jun-12 7:50 AM >>> > In this very interesting ad designed to get people to stop smoking > they use a tactic where they have innocent little children holding a > cigarette go up to smokers and ask for a light. The smokers are taken > aback to say the least and they (at least the ones in the video) talk > to the kids about how bad smoking is. It looks like a very good idea > - get people to convince others that smoking is bad and thereby induce > cognitive dissonance between their actions (smoking) and what they say. > > http://www.wimp.com/smokingads/ > > But: I think they ruin the potential of the attempt by having the > children then give the smokers a small piece of paper that essentially > explains that they were trying to get them to change their habit (and > the note gives them a stop smoking hotline number). The note reveals > that the whole thing was a set-up. Doesn't this allow the smoker to > dismiss the whole thing entirely? I think the idea would have been > more effective if the kids had not revealed the manipulation attempt. > > Thoughts? > > Michael > > Michael A. 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