Emotional reaction facilitates the brain and behavioural impact of graphic cigarette warning labels in smokers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Warning labels on cigarette packages are an important venue for information about the hazards of smoking. The 2009 US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act mandated replacing the current text-only labels with graphic warning labels. However, labels proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were challenged in court by the tobacco companies, who argued successfully that the proposed labels needlessly encroached on their right to free speech, in part because they included images of high emotional salience that indiscriminately frightened rather than informed consumers.

Methods

We used functional MRI to examine the effects of graphic warning labels' emotional salience on smokers' brain activity and cognition. Twenty-four smokers viewed a random se

SUBMITTER: Wang AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4495960 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature