My wife called me this morning to alert me to this interesting story she heard on NPR. The NPR text:
Smoking can kill you and so can the warning labels on cigarettes. Psychologists did a small study of the effects of warning labels that mention death. Apparently a reminder of death makes you feel stress. You then want to do something comforting. Naturally, you reach for a cigarette. Researchers say they'd prefer warning labels that do not mention death such as: Smoking makes you unattractive.I dug around and here's a summary of the research NPR highlighted. The study has to do with Terror Management Theory which I've written a great deal about on this blog.
