Deniers and Admitters: Examining Smoker Identities in a Changing Tobacco Landscape

Conclusions:
Findings suggest that deniers perceive lower harm from using tobacco products. Tax increases may be less effective at motivating quit attempts in deniers compared to admitters, implying that cessation programs tailored to specific smoking identities could usefully complement tax increases.

Implications:
Findings from this study suggest that tobacco tax increases should be coordinated with health promotion interventions to address occasional and social smoking. The denier phenomenon in particular is an important identity-based construct that population-level public health practice should consider in order to design effective tobacco control interventions. In addition, findings from our study and previous research suggest that occasional or social smokers who deny the smoker identity may be slowing progress in reducing smoking rates. Interventions targeting occasional smokers, and in particular, deniers, are needed to accelerate cessation efforts.

Source: Nicotine and Tobacco Research - October 7, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Kingsbury, J. H., Parks, M. J., Amato, M. S., Boyle, R. G. Tags: Original Investigation Source Type: research