Effects of self-persuasion and referencing on attitudes towards smoking : a cross-cultural examination

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness of self-persuasion and referencing in reducing smokers’ favourable attitudes towards smoking. The study adopted a 2 (persuasion: self-persuasion vs direct persuasion) by 2 (referencing: self-referencing vs other-referencing) between-subjects experimental study design. This is conducted across two cultural contexts to examine the role culture may play on message persuasiveness. Smokers were recruited from both collectivistic and individualistic societies, Singapore (SG, N=161) and America (US, N=163) respectively. While self-persuasion led to more counterattitudinal thoughts, its effects on smoking attitudes was not significant. Self-referencing was found to induce less favourable attitudes towards smoking than other-referencing, mediated by reactance. Results also found an interaction between Self-Persuasion x Referencing. Under self-persuasion, participants exhibited less favourable attitudes towards smoking in self-referencing than other-referencing. An interaction was also found for Self-Persuasion x Cultural Orientation. Self-persuasion worked better in US than SG, although this did not reach significance. Two-way interaction between Referencing x Cultural Orientation was insignificant. Study findings provide initial direction for anti-smoking campaigns and potentially other resistive behaviours. Future research can replicate this study in different health contexts and populations to increase generalisability of results.