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Smoking: Risk, Perception & Policy
Edited by Paul Slovic
Do individuals really know and understand the risks entailed by their smoking decisions?
The question is particularly important in the case of young persons, because most smokers start during childhood and adolescence. After years of intense publicity about the damages of smoking, it is generally believed that every teenager and adult in the United States knows that smoking is dangerous to health, thus decisions to smoke are informed choices. This book presents a counterview, based on a survey of several thousand young persons and adults, probing attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions of risk associated with smoking. The authors argue that young smokers give little or no thought to health risks or the problems of addiction. The survey data contradicts the model of informed, rational choice and underscores the need for aggressive policies to counter tobacco firms’ marketing and promotional efforts and to restrict youth access to tobacco.
CONTENTS:
Preface
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Risks of Active and Passive Smoking J. M. Samet
2. A Profile of Smokers and Smoking P. Jamieson and D. Romer
II. PERCEPTIONS OF RISK BY ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS
3. What Do Young People Think They Know About the Risks of Smoking? P. Jamieson and D. Romer
4. The Role of Perceived Risk in Starting and Stopping Smoking D. Romer and P. Jamieson
5. Smokers’ Recognition of Their Vulnerability to Harm N. D. Weinstein
6. Cigarette Smokers: Rational Actors or Rational Fools? P. Slovic
III. MEDIA INFLUENCE ON SMOKING
7. Advertising, Smoker Imagery, and the Diffusion of Smoking Behavior D. Romer and P. Jamieson
IV. ADDICTION
8. The Nature of Nicotine Addiction N. L. Benowitz
9. A Visceral Account of Addiction G. Loewenstein
10. The Catch-22 of Smoking and Quitting D. Romer, P. Jamieson, and R. K. Ahern
V. LEGAL AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES
11. The Joint Failure of Economic Theory and Legal Regulation J. D. Hanson and D. A. Kysar
12. Tobacco and Public Health Policy: A Youth-Centered Approach R. J. Bonnie
May 2001, 392 pages
Available from the publisher at www.sagepub.com