Graphic warning and Smoking cessation; mediating role of fear aversion and perception of health threats

Abstract

In recent decades, social marketing has been recognized as an effective attitude to behavior change. Today, smoking is one of the health concerns for young people. Graphical warning messages are one of the initiatives developed in social marketing, which aims to increase crack action or reduce smoking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of graphic warnings on cigarette packs. In the survey, data were collected from 126 smokers in Tehran universities. The results showed warning levels in the light of the frequency of smoking is likely to lead to fear, and fear affects the health threat from smoking. However, findings show that graphical warnings do not affect the thinking of treating, but in interaction with the frequency of smoking, it can affect the thinking of smoking cessation. The results of this study also show visual messages are more effective than verbal messages.

Keywords

• social marketing
• health threats perception
• fear
• smoking cessation intentions
• graphic levels