Do social groups have an automatic impact on smoking?

Abstract

The main goal is to test the impact of social relationships on physical health behaviour (smoking) at a group level in terms of automatic processes (activation of social norms). Primes of groups with social norms more or less favourable of smoking were manipulated, and the identification with these groups was assessed. It is hypothesised that smoking will be promoted under the prime of pro-smoking groups, specially for those who identify with smokers. In a preliminary study on-line, 112 participants were asked to nominate groups associated with smoking (e.g., students) and non-smoking (e.g. athletes), and we assessed perceived descriptive norms, identification with smokers and smoking behaviour. Results demonstrate that greater perceived descriptive norms (b=.360, SEb=.055, β=.269, p<.001) and greater identification with smokers (b=.445, SEb=.201, β=1.202, p<.001) were associated with more cigarettes smoked. The interaction between perceived descriptive norms and identification with smokers was also significant (b=.195, SEb=.027, β=.069, p=.011), suggesting that the effect of perceived descriptive norms on the number of cigarettes smoked depended on the level of identification with smokers. In the main study, an adaptation of the supraliminar priming paradigm by Smith et al. (2004) was used (participants wrote about one of these groups). Identification with each group was measured using the Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale (Aron et al., 1992; Tropp e Wright, 2001). The dependent variable was an IAT towards smoking (De Houwer et al., 2006). Results stress the importance of the automatic effects of social relations on smoking and their implications for intervention.