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Original communications

The role of social influence and smoker identity in resistance to smoking cessation

1This research program was supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, Switzerland. We are grateful to Juan Fabra for his help in collecting data.

Published Online:September 01, 2006https://doi.org/10.1024//1421-0185.58.2.73

Abstract

153 secondary school students, all smokers, were either exposed to a strongly anti-smoking message originating from a high status source (persuasive message condition) or not (control condition). A questionnaire then measured a set of variables concerning several aspects of tobacco consumption (i.e., smoker identity, attitude, subjective norm, perceived lack of behavioural control, smoking behaviour, and intention to give up smoking). First, regression analysis shows that the smoker's identity plays a direct and important role in explaining current smoking behaviour and the intention not to smoke, even when other variables are controlled. Second, analyses of variance indicate that smokers with a strong identity as a smoker are defensively motivated when confronting a persuasive attempt - i.e. their perception of friends' support to smoke increases. Finally, partial correlations show that the relationship between smoker identity and intention to give up smoking is mediated by this defensive motivation. Taken together, these results suggest that smoker identity is an important factor in explaining smoker's intention to give up smoking and, when antitobacco campaigns are salient, smoker identity can affect other variables which can reverse antitobacco efforts.

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