Social interaction and smoking topography in heavy and light smokers

doi:10.1016/0306-4603(79)90049-2

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 4, Issue 2, 1979, Pages 147-153

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4603(79)90049-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

The effects of social interaction on the topography of smoking behavior of heavy and light cigarette smokers was investigated. Smoking behavior was analyzed via closed circuit television monitoring during periods of informal interpersonal conversation and periods of isolation. Number of cigarettes smoked, number of puffs, cigarette duration, interpuff interval, puff duration, percent of tobacco burned, time with cigarette in mouth, and time with cigarette in hand were analyzed. Heavy and light smokers were affected differentially by the social conditions. Light smokers took more frequent and longer puffs when smoking alone with social interaction functioning to decrease the total amount of smoke inhaled. Heavy smokers were unaffected by the social conditions.

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Role of social context in addiction etiology and recovery
2023, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
While social context has long been considered central to substance use disorder prevention and treatment and many drug-taking events occur in social settings, experimental research on social context has historically been limited. Recent years have seen an emergence of concerted preclinical and human laboratory research documenting the direct impact of social context on substance use, delineating behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms underlying social influence's role. We review this emerging preclinical and human laboratory literature from a theoretical lens that considers distinct stages of the addiction process including drug initiation/acquisition, escalation, and recovery. A key conclusion of existing research is that the impact of the social environment is critically moderated by the drug-taking behavior and drug use history of a social peer. Specifically, while drug-free social contexts can reduce the likelihood of drug use initiation and act as a competitive non-drug alternative preventing escalation, drug-using peers can equally facilitate initiation and escalation through peer modeling as a contingent reward of use. Likewise, social context may facilitate recovery or serve as a barrier that increases the chances of a return to regular use. We conclude by discussing evidence-based treatments and recovery support services that explicitly target social mechanisms or that have identified social context as a mechanism of change within treatment. Ultimately, new areas for research including the expansion of drug classes studied and novel human laboratory designs are needed to further translate emerging findings into clinical practice.
The impact of active and passive peer influence on young adult smoking: An experimental study
2012, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Citation Excerpt :
Moreover, empirical evidence has consistently shown that during interaction with another person, individuals unintentionally mimic his/her postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, eating behavior, and other behaviors (Chartrand and Bargh, 1999; Tanner et al., 2008). A small number of experimental studies, focusing on passive peer influence, have shown consistently that students are more likely to smoke in the company of a heavy-smoking than a non-smoking peer (Antonuccio and Lichtenstein, 1980; Harakeh et al., 2007; Kniskern et al., 1983; Miller et al., 1979). In the alcohol literature, experimental studies showed similar findings.
Peers influence adolescent and young adult smoking, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. It is necessary to understand whether the current assumption of peer pressure is valid, or whether an alternative explanation as imitation is more appropriate. We examined whether passive (imitation) and/or active (pressure) peer influence affects young adult smoking.
An experiment was conducted among 68 daily-smoking students aged 16–24. The actual study aim was masked. Participants had to do a 30-min music task with a confederate. The experiment consisted of a 2 (smoking condition: confederate smokes or not) by 2 (pressure condition: confederate offers the participant a cigarette or not) factorial design, resulting in four conditions: (1) no smoking and no pressure (N = 15); (2) smoking but no pressure (N = 16); (3) pressure but no smoking (N = 20); and (4) smoking and pressure (N = 17). The primary outcome tested was the total number of cigarettes smoked during this music assignment.
Peer smoking significantly predicted the total number of cigarettes smoked by young adults while peer pressure did not. The interaction effect of peer pressure and peer smoking was not significant.
Peer pressure did not have a significant additional contribution, over and above smoking of the peer. Passive (imitation) peer influence affected young adult smoking rather than active (pressure) peer influence. Thus, smoking cessation efforts should aim at preventing interaction with smoking peers and raising awareness about its impact.
Imitation of cigarette smoking: An experimental study on smoking in a naturalistic setting
2007, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Examine whether smokers imitate smoking behaviour of strangers and to what extent this is moderated by the nature of social interactions.
An experiment with a three (heavy smoking, light smoking, or no smoking condition) by two (warm versus cold social interaction condition) factorial design. Daily smoking young adults were exposed to same-gender confederates and were observed in a bar laboratory.
Smoking and social behaviour were observed and coded during a 30-min break between two tasks, consisting of rating television advertisements.
Participants imitated the smoking behaviour of confederates. After controlling for young people's craving, confederate's smoking explains 35% of the variance in the number of cigarettes smoked. Participants are more likely to smoke and to continue smoking in the warm social interaction condition. Lighting up the first cigarette was affected by confederate's smoking and participant's urges to smoke. Lighting up a second was affected by the heavy smoking condition and warm social interaction condition. Lighting up a third cigarette was affected only by the heavy smoking condition.
Imitation largely explains why individuals light up a cigarette and continue to smoke.
Characteristics of heavy smokers
1992, Preventive Medicine
Background. Heavy smokers (those who smoke ⩾25 or more cigarettes a day) are a subgroup who place themselves and others at risk for harmful health consequences and also are those least likely to achieve cessation. Despite this, heavy smokers are not well described as a segment of the smoking population.
Methods. We used representative population data on 1,048 smokers to examine differences between heavy and lighter smokers (⩽24 cigarettes per day).
Results. Heavy smokers constituted 26.7% of all cigarette smokers. Compared with lighter smokers, heavy smokers were significantly more likely to be male, to be age 30 years or older, to smoke their first cigarette of the day within 30 min of waking, to perceive quitting as very difficult, to have little confidence in their ability to quit, to be less likely to report variation in their rate of smoking between work and leisure days, and to be less likely to be employed.
Conclusions. Public health strategies which may particularly assist heavy smokers include stronger restrictions on smoking in public places, nicotine replacement therapies, and the use of segmentation research to more carefully target campaign messages to influence quit attempts and confidence.
Self-monitored smoking motives
1990, Journal of Substance Abuse
The motives for smoking in 73 low, medium, and high rate smokers were surveyed and were evaluated the validity of the Reasons for Smoking scale (RFS) by correlating RFS scores with self-monitored reasons for smoking. Combined sample correlations were significant for 5 of the 6 RFS reasons. However, all correlations were modest, the number of correlations varied with smoking rate, and the RFS was not a valid measure of pleasurable relaxation, the reason most frequently reported during self-monitoring. The unexpected finding that pleasurable relaxation, not reduction of negative affect, was the most frequently endorsed reason conflicts with previous surveys, almost all of which sampled older smokers. Smoking behavior of younger smokers may differ from older smokers in ways important to the study of smoking motivation. These differences may explain why experimental studies with undergraduates generally find no relationship between smoking and negative affect while studies with older subjects do.
Assessment of smoking urge and its concomitants under an environmental smoking cue manipulation
1985, Addictive Behaviors
The construct validity of smoking urge was examined through investigation of the effects of an environmental smoking cue manipulation on subjective smoking urge ratings and on the physiological, behavioral and cognitive responses hypothesized to relate to smoking urges. Forty-eight moderate cigarette smokers served as participants. All participants underwent an exposure to smoking cues condition and a nonexposure condition. Order of conditions was counterbalanced across participants. Results indicated that measures of physiological response, cognitions, and behavior vary with urge to smoke. Higher physiological indices and closer association between specific cognitive measures and smoking urges occurred under the cue exposure manipulation. Results were interpreted as preliminary data supporting the construct validity of smoking urge.

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Social interaction and smoking topography in heavy and light smokers

Abstract

Addictive Behaviors

Addictive behaviors

Addictive Behaviors

Addictive Behaviors

Behavior Therapy

Lancet

Smoking history and puff profile core service at the University of Louisville— A successful explant

Experimental analysis of human drug self-administration