ArticleTobacco control2015
Emotional reaction facilitates the brain and behavioural impact of graphic cigarette warning labels in smokers.
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 50 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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
50 citing papers in PubMed, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perceived Effectiveness of Cigar Warnings Among Young People in the U.S.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Trial
- Exploring the Impact of Safer Sports Betting Promotion on Social Media: An Experimental Study.Journal of gambling studies · 2024Trial
- Combining Inserts With Warning Labels on Cigarette Packs to Promote Smoking Cessation: A 2-Week Randomized Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2024Trial
- Signs of Warning: Do Health Warning Messages on Sweets Affect the Neural Prefrontal Cortex Activity?Nutrients · 2020Trial
- Higher negative emotions in response to cigarette pictorial warning labels predict higher quit intentions among smokers.Tobacco control · 2020Trial
- Designing Effective Testimonial Pictorial Warning Labels for Tobacco Products.Health communication · 2019Trial
- Emotional salience of the image component facilitates recall of the text of cigarette warning labels.European journal of public health · 2019Trial
- Cigarette pack messages about toxic chemicals: a randomised clinical trial.Tobacco control · 2019Trial
- "That's probably what my mama's lungs look like": how adolescent children react to pictorial warnings on their parents' cigarette packs.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Effects of Pictorial Warning Labels for Cigarettes and Quit-Efficacy on Emotional Responses, Smoking Satisfaction, and Cigarette Consumption.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Cigarette Graphic Warning Labels Are Not Created Equal: They Can Increase or Decrease Smokers' Quit Intentions Relative to Text-Only Warnings.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2017Trial
- Potential Effectiveness of Pictorial Warning Labels That Feature the Images and Personal Details of Real People.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2017Trial
- Influence of Health Warnings on Beliefs about the Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking, in the Context of an Experimental Study in Four Asian Countries.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Trial
- Adolescents' Responses to Pictorial Warnings on Their Parents' Cigarette Packs.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2016Trial
- Viewing alcohol warning advertising reduces urges to drink in young adults: an online experiment.BMC public health · 2016Trial
- Exposure to graphic warning labels on cigarette packages: Effects on implicit and explicit attitudes towards smoking among young adults.Psychology & health · 2016Trial
- Graphic Warning Labels Elicit Affective and Thoughtful Responses from Smokers: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Emotional arousal of graphic cigarette warning labels loses its beneficial effects on craving reduction after repeated exposure - A longitudinal neuroimaging study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Pictorial warning labels reduce sharing intentions, blunt self-relevance processes elicited by social media posts promoting cannabis edibles.The Journal of communication · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWarning labels on cigarette packages are an important venue for information about the hazards of smoking. The 2009 US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act mandated replacing the current text-only labels with graphic warning labels. However, labels proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were challenged in court by the tobacco companies, who argued successfully that the proposed labels needlessly encroached on their right to free speech, in part because they included images of high emotional salience that indiscriminately frightened rather than informed consumers.
methodsWe used functional MRI to examine the effects of graphic warning labels' emotional salience on smokers' brain activity and cognition. Twenty-four smokers viewed a random sequence of blocks of graphic warning labels that have been rated high or low on an 'emotional reaction' scale in previous research.
resultsWe found that labels rated high on emotional reaction were better remembered, associated with reduction in the urge to smoke, and produced greater brain response in the amygdala, hippocampi, inferior frontal gyri and the insulae.
conclusionsRecognition memory and craving are, respectively, correlates of effectiveness of addiction-related public health communications and interventions, and amygdala activation facilitates the encoding of emotional memories. Thus, our results suggest that emotional reaction to graphic warning labels contributes to their public health impact and may be an integral part of the neural mechanisms underlying their effectiveness. Given the urgency of the debate about the constitutional risks and public health benefits of graphic warning labels, these preliminary findings warrant consideration while longitudinal clinical studies are underway.
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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.