title: The impact of social context on cigarette self-administration in nondependent smokers.
abstract: Tobacco use in nondependent smokers (i.e. chippers) is believed to be largely determined by situational factors including social context. However, little empirical research has examined how different social contexts impact chippers' smoking behaviour. Twenty-eight (16 men) chippers completed two laboratory sessions where they were offered an opportunity to self-administer puffs of their preferred tobacco brand using a progressive ratio task. During an individual session, participants self-administered cigarettes alone and during a paired session, they self-administered cigarettes with a coparticipant who was also smoking. The strongest predictors for number of self-administered puffs and breakpoint during the paired session were coparticipants' number of puffs and breakpoint, respectively (P<0.001), followed by puffs taken and breakpoint during the individual session (P<0.01). Current smoking frequency (cigarettes/week) did not significantly predict puffs taken or breakpoint during the paired session. Latency to cigarette self-administration during the paired session was correlated positively with coparticipants' latency (P<0.05), but not with latency during the individual session or cigarettes per week. The findings suggest that the presence of another smoker exerts an important influence on the quantity of chippers' smoking behaviour, such that chippers match their smoking behaviour to that of other smokers in their proximate environment.
authors.affiliation: Departments of aPsychology and Neuroscience bPsychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reymarova
authors.forename: Hera E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Schlagintweit
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Barrett
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012646:Self Administration; D012907:Smoking / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D013997:Time Factors; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002248:Carbon Monoxide