Although the prevalence of smoking cigarettes has decreased in recent decades, 15% of Americans still choose to smoke (CDC, 2016). We all know smoking can lead to premature death by lung cancer (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012), and yet many of us choose to light up anyway. In fact, I was once a pack-or-two-a-day smoker. What could have ever caused me, a fairly intelligent and rational person, to begin? More importantly, what enabled me to kick the habit? I didn’t realize it then, but social psychological principles can help to explain both.
I smoked for a decade before I quit when I was 21 (you can do the math to figure out just how young I was when I started). Of course any doctor I saw voiced their concern for my health, my family’s health, and even my pet’s health! They couldn’t imagine how I began smoking so young, and I was often asked about it. To be honest, my “first time” was very underwhelming. I was hanging out with my friend in her parents’ garage, and her older sister had some friends over as well. They were all smoking, and, wanting to be cool (especially in front of the boys in the group), I took a drag of someone’s cigarette. This social influence encouraged me to start, and once I became a smoker, my social circle filled only with those who shared the same habit. I never felt directly persuaded to start smoking (it was me who made that choice), and I never persuaded anyone else to begin, but I do feel that I was primed to become a smoker.
Not only did I begin smoking young, which is a risk factor for becoming a constant smoker (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012), but my mom also was a heavy smoker. Parental influence can be a strong force in encouraging healthy behavior (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012), but a parent modeling bad health can encourage bad choices on the child’s part. My mom, of course, told me that I should never smoke, and others echoed those sentiments. In school, a local police officer came in to speak to us about drugs and alcohol in a familiar program called D.A.R.E. This program uses an informational approach to keep kids from using illegal drugs and other substances, and encourages healthy behavior. I do not recall ever seeing fear appeals in regards to smoking, at least not like we have today with pictures of blackened lungs or people that are toothless. Clearly well-meaning doctors, family, and city officials did nothing to stop my smoking as I continued on.
For the next decade or so, I smoked for different reasons—because it allowed me to be more social, because it gave me something to do, because it made me feel good. My brain was physically affected by the chemicals in the cigarettes, my addiction forcing me to need another and all the while my rational self knew I was slowly committing suicide. But the truth was, I did not want to quit, at least not until I was ready. I was able to get rid of my dissonance by claiming I could reverse the health risks before they were a problem, and that so-and-so smoked for years and lived to be X years old. I’ll be fine! Then one day I said enough is enough. I read something in one of my studies that talked about the influence a parent has on a child—that the child is more likely to do the things they see their parents doing (good or bad). My daughter had already started mimicking me, using candy or pens to pretend she was smoking. This made me really uncomfortable, but I knew that if I quit while she was so young, she would not even remember mommy being a smoker. I quit that day, cold turkey, and have not looked back.
My daughter (now 7) asked me once why Nana (my mother) smokes but I do not. I told her the same things my mom told me, but as a non-smoker, I know my message can truly help to prevent her from lighting up. She has an advantage that I did not have—fewer people are smoking today—but with the new ways to smoke (e.g., “vaping” or electronic cigarettes) there are different dangers that I need to protect her from. I could use fear tactics to convince her not to smoke, but they do not always work as intended (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012). I can try to limit her social circle, but in times of transition she is more likely to try new things anyway. Luckily for me, I have a few years before I have to worry about it. And since I no longer smoke, I know that I have a long life ahead of me as well.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Smoking & tobacco use. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications