Table 2.
Cross-sectional (T1) Distribution of Agreement for Each of 16 Belief Items
| Belief item | Strongly disagree | Disagree | Agree | Strongly agree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How do you think your close friends feel or would feel about your smoking cigarettes every day? (strongly disapprove)a | 1.2% | 6.6% | 32.3% | 60.0% |
| …I will breathe in thousands of chemicals | 1.8% | 2.1% | 39.6% | 56.5% |
| …I will become addicted to nicotine | 2.2% | 3.6% | 38.2% | 56.1% |
| How much do you think breathing smoke from other people’s cigarettes harms you? (a lot)b | 2.9% | 11.9% | 30.0% | 55.2% |
| …I will enjoy life more (strongly disagree) | 1.5% | 3.7% | 41.4% | 53.5% |
| …I will develop cancer | 1.4% | 4.8% | 49.4% | 44.3% |
| …I will be controlled by smoking | 3.1% | 8.6% | 44.8% | 43.5% |
| …it will be a turn off to other people | 3.1% | 11.9% | 47.0% | 38.1% |
| …I will feel relaxed (strongly disagree) | 1.9% | 17.9% | 43.8% | 36.4% |
| The tobacco industry intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive | 1.7% | 9.5% | 54.3% | 34.5% |
| …I will lose my teeth | 2.0% | 11.8% | 55.7% | 30.5% |
| …I will get wrinkles | 2.2% | 12.7% | 57.6% | 27.4% |
| …I will look uncool | 8.1% | 21.1% | 44.6% | 26.2% |
| …I will get yellow fingers | 4.0% | 25.2% | 52.2% | 18.6% |
| …I will develop headaches | 1.7% | 17.9% | 62.7% | 17.7% |
| …I will develop sexual and/or fertility problems | 4.0% | 24.5% | 54.6% | 16.9% |
Note. All belief items beginning with ellipses were preceded by “If I smoke every day…” Unless otherwise indicated in parentheses in the table, the “strongest antismoking belief” response option was “strongly agree”.
a
The response options for this item were: strongly disapprove, disapprove, approve, and strongly approve.
cThe response options for this item were: not at all, a little, somewhat, and a lot.