title: Does Stigmatization Motivate People to Quit Smoking? Examining the Effect of Stigmatizing Anti-Smoking Campaigns on Cessation Intention.
abstract: Stigmatization against smokers characterizes many of today's anti-smoking campaigns in the United States. It is believed that stigmatization motivates people to quit smoking by arousing a state of emotional distress, such as shame, in viewers. However, stagnant cessation rates among socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers imply that stigmatizing campaigns might be ineffective in promoting cessation among those low in socioeconomic status. To understand the effectiveness of stigmatizing campaign messages, we proposed a moderated mediation model and experimentally tested it among current smokers (n = 136). Results show that exposure to a stigmatizing message significantly lowered smokers' cessation intentions who have lower income and less self-efficacy. The conditional negative effect of the message was accounted for by shame experienced by smokers.
authors.affiliation: a College of Communications , The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Jinyoung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: b Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies , University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
authors.forename: Xiaoxia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: c Department of Communication Arts and Sciences , The Pennsylvania State University.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meczkowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D066308:Public Service Announcements as Topic; D020377:Self Efficacy; D000074285:Smokers / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D012923:Social Class; D057545:Social Stigma; D014481:United States