rning came out on the cigarette packages. Since then there has been a drop in the number of smokers in Canada. The decline isn’t marked, however, there could be a correlation. This moderate form of propaganda / information that seems to have the greater effect. Like the forbidden toy experiments (Aronson & Carlsmith, 1963) the high stress condition (anger as opposed to annoyance at a child playing with a specific toy, judged to be of some importance to the child) resisted more to attitude change than the moderate stress condition (annoyance). It seems as though this principle holds here, but in the interests of public health, more “must” be done about smoking. Less drastic measures than those currently being undertaken would probably be more advisable.Last but not least, from other sectors of the Psychological community comes certain ideas about smokers. First, people who have what is dubbed as “addictive personalities” can come to disregard the need to quit because the feel that they can do little to change part of their “personalities”. Personality is seen as something constant and requiring a great deal more effort than they are willing to put in. Also, there is some belief that smokers are less happy with their live. This statement seems to be backed by higher rates of depression in smokers and lower scores on tests of self-esteem. If in someone’s self schemata, one of the roles is “smoker”, that person may come to identify with the group(smokers in general). If the smoker is aware of these statistics about the “quality” of life as a smoker, they may come to embody them, even though they are happy with their lives. This may in turn make it more difficult for the smoker to quit.In the end, all smokers have to quit smoking at one time or another, whether we survive cigarettes (by quitting) or not (we die). Internal motivation is the true key to quitt...
