Abstract
Background: Exposure to smoking-related cues leads to increased urge to smoke in regular cigarette smokers and resisting these urges requires considerable self-control.
Purpose: Adopting a resource depletion model, two studies tested the hypothesis that resisting smoking urges depletes self-control resources.
Methods: Adopting a within-participants randomized cross-over design, participants (study 1, N = 19; study 2, N = 32) were exposed to smoking-related (study 1: smoking images; study 2: cigarette cue-exposure task) and neutral (study 1: neutral images; study 2: drinking-straw task) cues with presentation order randomized. After each cue set, participants completed self-control tasks (study 1: handgrip task; study 2: handgrip and Stroop tasks), performance on which constituted dependent measures of self-control.
Results: Self-control task performance was significantly impaired when exposed to smoking-related cues compared to neutral cues. No significant presentation-order effects, or interaction effects between stimulus and presentation order, were found.
Conclusions: Findings corroborate our hypothesis that resisting smoking urges depletes cigarette smokers' self-control resources and suggests that self-control capacity is governed by a limited resource. Copyright © 2013 The Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Purpose: Adopting a resource depletion model, two studies tested the hypothesis that resisting smoking urges depletes self-control resources.
Methods: Adopting a within-participants randomized cross-over design, participants (study 1, N = 19; study 2, N = 32) were exposed to smoking-related (study 1: smoking images; study 2: cigarette cue-exposure task) and neutral (study 1: neutral images; study 2: drinking-straw task) cues with presentation order randomized. After each cue set, participants completed self-control tasks (study 1: handgrip task; study 2: handgrip and Stroop tasks), performance on which constituted dependent measures of self-control.
Results: Self-control task performance was significantly impaired when exposed to smoking-related cues compared to neutral cues. No significant presentation-order effects, or interaction effects between stimulus and presentation order, were found.
Conclusions: Findings corroborate our hypothesis that resisting smoking urges depletes cigarette smokers' self-control resources and suggests that self-control capacity is governed by a limited resource. Copyright © 2013 The Society of Behavioral Medicine.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 394-400 |
Journal | Annals of Behavioral Medicine |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | May 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2013 |
Citation
Hagger, M. S., Leaver, E., Esser, K., Leung, C.-M., Te Pas, N., Keatley, D. A., . . . Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2013). Cue-induced smoking urges deplete cigarette smokers' self-control resources. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 46(3), 394-400. doi: 10.1007/s12160-013-9520-8Keywords
- Strength model
- Self-regulation
- Tobacco
- Smoking urge
- Dual-task procedure