ArticleTobacco control2015
Smokers' sensory beliefs mediate the relation between smoking a light/low tar cigarette and perceptions of harm.
Article in Tobacco control, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tobacco package health warnings about product manipulations: an experimental study among Australian adults who smoke.Health promotion international · 2025Trial
- Acute effects of charcoal filters and package color on cigarette perceptions and use behaviors: Results from a randomized pilot study examining Natural American Spirit "Sky".Drug and alcohol dependence · 2024Trial
- Reduced nicotine content cigarette advertising: How false beliefs and subjective ratings affect smoking behavior.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Trial
- The policy implementation playbook: a cross-policy taxonomy of post-adoption tobacco industry tactics.Globalization and health · 2026Review
- Effects of unventilated versus ventilated filtered cigarettes on smoking behaviour and biomarkers of smoke exposure in a randomised clinical trial.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Association of cigarette design features with smoker characteristics and risk beliefs: Cross-sectional findings from the 2019 ITC France Survey.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2025Article
- The Effects of Filter Ventilation and Expanded Tobacco on the Tar, Nicotine and Carbon Monoxide Yields from Cigarettes Sold in Australia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Tobacco industry messaging around harm: Narrative framing in PMI and BAT press releases and annual reports 2011 to 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Shedding 'light' on cigarette pack design: colour differences in product perceptions, use and exposure following the US descriptor ban.Tobacco control · 2022Article
- The "Organic" Descriptor and Its Association With Commercial Cigarette Health Risk Expectancies, Subjective Effects, and Smoking Topography: A Pilot Human Laboratory Study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Smokers' awareness of filter ventilation, and how they believe it affects them: findings from the ITC Four Country Survey.Tobacco control · 2021Article
- Smokers Awareness and Risk Perceptions of Filter Ventilation.Tobacco regulatory science · 2020Article
- US Smokers' Beliefs, Experiences and Perceptions of Different Cigarette Variants Before and After the FSPTCA Ban on Misleading Descriptors Such as "Light," "Mild," or "Low".Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2016Article
- The importance of the belief that "light" cigarettes are smoother in misperceptions of the harmfulness of "light" cigarettes in the Republic of Korea: a nationally representative cohort study.BMC public health · 2015Article
- Australian adult smokers' responses to plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings 1 year after implementation: results from a national cross-sectional tracking survey.Tobacco control · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe sensory belief that 'light/low tar' cigarettes are smoother can also influence the belief that 'light/low tar' cigarettes are less harmful. However, the 'light' concept is one of several factors influencing beliefs. No studies have examined the impact of the sensory belief about one's own brand of cigarettes on perceptions of harm.
objectiveThe current study examines whether a smoker's sensory belief that their brand is smoother is associated with the belief that their brand is less harmful and whether sensory beliefs mediate the relation between smoking a 'light/low tar' cigarette and relative perceptions of harm among smokers in China.
methodsData are from 5209 smokers who were recruited using a stratified multistage sampling design and participated in Wave 3 of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Survey, a face-to-face survey of adult smokers and non-smokers in seven cities.
resultsSmokers who agreed that their brand of cigarettes was smoother were significantly more likely to say that their brand of cigarettes was less harmful (p<0.001, OR=6.86, 95% CI 5.64 to 8.33). Mediational analyses using the bootstrapping procedure indicated that both the direct effect of 'light/low tar' cigarette smokers on the belief that their cigarettes are less harmful (b=0.24, bootstrapped bias corrected 95% CI 0.13 to 0.34, p<0.001) and the indirect effect via their belief that their cigarettes are smoother were significant (b=0.32, bootstrapped bias-corrected 95% CI 0.28 to 0.37, p<0.001), suggesting that the mediation was partial.
conclusionsThese results demonstrate the importance of implementing tobacco control policies that address the impact that cigarette design and marketing can have in capitalising on the smoker's natural associations between smoother sensations and lowered perceptions of harm.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.