Reference: Peters, E., Shoots-Reinhard, B., Evans, A. T., Shoben, A., Klein, E. G., Tompkins, M. K., Romer, D. & Tusler, M. (2018). Pictorial warning labels and memory for cigarette health-risk information over time. Can warning labels increase people’s intention to quit smoking and longer memory of smoking risks? Psychologists studied whether certain warning labels posted on cigarette packages increase the perception of risk and have longer term memory of the risks. The researchers assessed if high-emotion pictorial labels (like a person with a cigarette has smoke coming out of his stoma or breathing hole in his neck to his trachea) would be remembered more than a low-emotion pictorial label (a smoker holding a burning cigarette covering their mouth while coughing) or a text-only label. Lastly, they assessed the label’s impact on quitting intentions. They showed 1,900 teen and adult smoker participants nine warning labels on four occasions and asked them to rate their emotions. Researchers recorded memory of the warning label, risk perception and intentions of quitting immediately and, again six weeks later. Results indicated that high-emotion warning labels (as judged by participants) and text only had longer term recall. There was greater recall when individuals had a higher perception of risk and greater intentions to quit. So, lets inform the public of negative consequences of smoking. Use highly-emotional warnings about the facts that would be ‘perception changing.’

Written by Shannon Cantalupo, B.S.