Figure 1.

Example of an ad randomly assigned to participants. For the experiment, participants were randomized to a 3 (Latency of response efficacy) × 2 (Self-efficacy) × 2 (Interrogative cue) factorial design. The latency of response efficacy included three conditions: two time frames for improvement from quitting smoking—“Within hours of quitting your health improves” and “Within 1 month of quitting you begin to breathe better and cough less”—and a control with nothing. The two conditions for self-efficacy included “You can quit” versus nothing. The two conditions for the interrogative cue were: “Ready to be tobacco free?” versus nothing. All participants saw a health message that read “Cigarette smoke contains arsenic. Arsenic causes lung tumors”. This message was combined with an image in the background of a smoky skull and crossbones, the presence of the FDA logo, and a link to the smokefree.gov website for free help in quitting smoking.