Nicotine - Effects of Messaging
For more information on stigmatizing people who smoke, please see our page about stigma.

Positive Outcomes
- "By contrast, messages that address efficacy beliefs can increase hope, knowledge of cessation supports and motivation, thus supporting adaptive responses to smoking health risks."
- Full text in PDF.
- Citation: Lillian Brinken, Kate Shiells, Stuart G Ferguson, Stefania Franja, Anna Blackwell, Claire Braboszcz, Olivia M Maynard, Harnessing hope and bolstering knowledge of how to quit: a qualitative investigation of including efficacy content in tobacco risk communication via daily SMS, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024;, ntae297, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae297
- Acknowledgement: This study was supported by an ESRC New Investigator‘s Award, awarded to Dr Olivia Maynard (ES/R003424/1) and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_00011/7). Stuart Ferguson has provided expert advice to various pharmaceutical companies and has received researcher-initiated project grant funding (through the GRAND initiative) and travel funds from Pfizer. These companies are not involved in the current study. All other project team members report no conflicts of interest.
- Citation: Lillian Brinken, Kate Shiells, Stuart G Ferguson, Stefania Franja, Anna Blackwell, Claire Braboszcz, Olivia M Maynard, Harnessing hope and bolstering knowledge of how to quit: a qualitative investigation of including efficacy content in tobacco risk communication via daily SMS, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024;, ntae297, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae297
Unintended Consequences
- "Participants in the present study described how GHWLs [graphic health warning labels] were experienced as stigmatising in the context of broader policies leading to denormalisation of smoking. They felt smokingrelated stigma negatively impacted their motivation to quit and confidence to do so. In light of these and other similar findings35,37, we suggest policies intended to promote denormalisation be re-considered."
- Full text in PDF.
- Citation: Lillian Brinken, Kate Shiells, Stuart G Ferguson, Stefania Franja, Anna Blackwell, Claire Braboszcz, Olivia M Maynard, Harnessing hope and bolstering knowledge of how to quit: a qualitative investigation of including efficacy content in tobacco risk communication via daily SMS, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024;, ntae297, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae297
- Acknowledgement: This study was supported by an ESRC New Investigator‘s Award, awarded to Dr Olivia Maynard (ES/R003424/1) and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_00011/7). Stuart Ferguson has provided expert advice to various pharmaceutical companies and has received researcher-initiated project grant funding (through the GRAND initiative) and travel funds from Pfizer. These companies are not involved in the current study. All other project team members report no conflicts of interest.
- Citation: Lillian Brinken, Kate Shiells, Stuart G Ferguson, Stefania Franja, Anna Blackwell, Claire Braboszcz, Olivia M Maynard, Harnessing hope and bolstering knowledge of how to quit: a qualitative investigation of including efficacy content in tobacco risk communication via daily SMS, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024;, ntae297, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae297
- "Messages that elicit negative stereotypes of smokers operated as ‘smoking-promoting messages’ in the context of our controlled laboratory investigation."
- PDF of paper
- Citation: Cortland, C. I., Shapiro, J. R., Guzman, I. Y., & Ray, L. A. (2019). The ironic effects of stigmatizing smoking: combining stereotype threat theory with behavioral pharmacology. Addiction. doi:10.1111/add.14696
- Acknowledgement: This research was funded by a Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (20XT-0154) grant awarded to the first and last authors. The authors would like to thank Spencer Bujarski for his assistance with the analyses.
- Citation: Cortland, C. I., Shapiro, J. R., Guzman, I. Y., & Ray, L. A. (2019). The ironic effects of stigmatizing smoking: combining stereotype threat theory with behavioral pharmacology. Addiction. doi:10.1111/add.14696
- " Consistent with the stigma-induced identity threat model (Major & O’Brien, 2005), we found that stigmatization generated a series of emotional, physiological, cognitive, and attitudinal reactions moving the smokers away from, rather than toward, quitting."
- Citation: Helweg-Larsen M, Sorgen LJ, Pisinger C. DOES IT HELP SMOKERS IF WE STIGMATIZE THEM? A TEST OF THE STIGMA-INDUCED IDENTITY THREAT MODEL AMONG U.S. AND DANISH SMOKERS. Soc Cogn. 2019 Jun;37(3):294-313. doi: 10.1521/soco.2019.37.3.294. Epub 2019 Jun 7. PMID: 31303688; PMCID: PMC6625812.
- Acknowledgement: The work was supported by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (R15-CA194937). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health. The authors declare no competing interests.
- Citation: Helweg-Larsen M, Sorgen LJ, Pisinger C. DOES IT HELP SMOKERS IF WE STIGMATIZE THEM? A TEST OF THE STIGMA-INDUCED IDENTITY THREAT MODEL AMONG U.S. AND DANISH SMOKERS. Soc Cogn. 2019 Jun;37(3):294-313. doi: 10.1521/soco.2019.37.3.294. Epub 2019 Jun 7. PMID: 31303688; PMCID: PMC6625812.
- "This study suggests that perceived smoking-related stigma may be associated with more quit attempts, but less successful quitting among smokers. It is possible that once stigma is internalized by smokers, it may function as a damaging force."
- Citation: Lozano P, Thrasher JF, Forthofer M, Hardin J, Shigematsu LMR, Arillo Santillán E, Fleischer NL. Smoking-Related Stigma: A Public Health Tool or a Damaging Force? Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Jan 27;22(1):96-103. doi: 10.1093/ntr/nty151. PMID: 30053141; PMCID: PMC7297009.
- Acknowledgement: Funding for data collection came from the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Salud-2007-C01-70032), with additional funding for analysis provided by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (P01 CA138389), Canadian Institutes for Health Research (57897, 79551, and 115016), and GTF was supported by a Senior Investigator Award from Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and by a Prevention Scientist Award from the Canadian Cancer Research Institute.
- Citation: Lozano P, Thrasher JF, Forthofer M, Hardin J, Shigematsu LMR, Arillo Santillán E, Fleischer NL. Smoking-Related Stigma: A Public Health Tool or a Damaging Force? Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Jan 27;22(1):96-103. doi: 10.1093/ntr/nty151. PMID: 30053141; PMCID: PMC7297009.