Trial reportAnnals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine2016
Reactance to Health Warnings Scale: Development and Validation.
Trial report in Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic Review of Measures Used in Pictorial Cigarette Pack Warning Experiments.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2017Pooled it
- Perceived Effectiveness of Cigar Warnings Among Young People in the U.S.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Trial
- Assessing Responses to Cannabis Health Warnings Among Adults in U.S. Recreational States.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Trial
- Harnessing Hope and Bolstering Knowledge of How to Quit: A Qualitative Investigation of Including Efficacy Content in Tobacco Risk Communication via Daily SMS.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Trial
- Optimising messages and images for e-cigarette warnings.Tobacco control · 2025Trial
- 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
- Impact of pictorial health warning labels on smoking beliefs and perceptions among waterpipe smokers: an online randomised cross-over experimental study.Tobacco control · 2023Trial
- The Impact of The Real Cost Vaping and Smoking Ads across Tobacco Products.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Trial
- Association of Spontaneous and Induced Self-Affirmation With Smoking Cessation in Users of a Mobile App: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Impact of Graphic Warning Messages on Intentions to Use Alternate Tobacco Products.Journal of health communication · 2020Trial
- Adapting a self-affirmation intervention for use in a mobile application for smokers.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2019Trial
- How should sugar-sweetened beverage health warnings be designed? A randomized experiment.Preventive medicine · 2019Trial
- Understanding Why Pictorial Cigarette Pack Warnings Increase Quit Attempts.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2019Trial
- Alcohol pictorial health warning labels: the impact of self-affirmation and health warning severity.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Why smokers avoid cigarette pack risk messages: Two randomized clinical trials in the United States.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2018Trial
- Adolescents' Responses to Pictorial Warnings on Their Parents' Cigarette Packs.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2016Trial
- Developing Tobacco Risk Communications for Young Adults Susceptible to Dual Use of Combustible Cigarettes and Nicotine Vapes: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Self-Protection Motivation and Its Psychological Construction: A Process Model Distinguishing Two Unique Motivational Orientations.Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc · 2026Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHealth warnings may be less effective if they elicit reactance, a motivation to resist a threat to freedom, yet we lack a standard measure of reactance. PURPOSE: We sought to validate a new health warning reactance scale in the context of pictorial cigarette pack warnings.
methodsA national sample of adults (n = 1413) responded to reactance survey questions while viewing randomly assigned pictorial or text warnings on images of cigarette packs. A separate longitudinal sample of adult smokers received the warnings on their own cigarette packs (n = 46).
resultsFactor analyses identified a reliable and valid 27-item Reactance to Health Warnings Scale. In our experimental study, smokers rated pictorial warnings as being able to motivate quitting more than text warnings. However, five reactance scale factors weakened the warnings' impact (anger, exaggeration, government, manipulation, and personal attack; all p < .05).
conclusionsThe Reactance to Health Warnings Scale had good psychometric properties. Reactance weakened the impact of pictorial warnings on smokers' evaluation of the warning's ability to motivate quitting.
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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.