Journal of personality and social psychology
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Effects of fear appeals and physiological arousal upon emotion, attitudes, and cigarette smoking.
Two experiments are reported that attempted to replicate conceptually Schachter's theory of the determinants of emotion and to test the feasibility of extending the theory to attitudes and behavior that may be mediated by the emotion of fear. A total of 279 cigarette smokers were administered either epinephrine or a placebo and then exposed to situational cues suggestive of disparate emotional states (Experiment 1) or different intensities of the same emotion (Experiment 2). ⋯ The situational cues affected emotion and attitudes. Higher levels of fear appeals strengthened intentions to quit smoking, and reassurance of the efficacy of stopping smoking reduced cigarette consumption.