Smoking is one of the most difficult addictions to break.
Scientists estimate that cigarettes are more addictive than cocaine, heroin, or
alcohol. According to the World Health Organization, smoking kills more people
than any disease in the world. With all this information readily available, why
do people continue to smoke?
Most people who smoke do so because they can't stop.
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance that makes people feel energized and
alert. Smokers get a rush after a cigarette, and giving up produces withdrawal
symptoms that include difficulty sleeping and cravings. Seventy percent of
people who quit smoking eventually start again.
Tobacco advertising also has a big influence on why
people smoke. For years, the industry has focused on making smoking glamorous
through advertising in movies, television, and billboards. While cigarette
advertising is now controlled, its influence can still be felt in the form of
free samples, smoking cartoons, and the promise of cool merchandise that can be
obtained in exchange for coupons printed on cigarette packs. Many people claim
that smoking keeps them thin, but the truth is that smoking reduces the sense
of taste, so many people who smoke simply eat less because they don't enjoy
food as much.
Smoking also produces psychological dependency. Many
people smoke because it helps them relax and cope with difficult situations, or
because it gives them confidence. Others smoke when they feel bored. Smoking
produces a feeling of satisfaction that's difficult to give up. Finally, people
who smoke are usually in denial – they know that smoking is bad, but they
convince themselves it's simply "not as terrible as they make it
sound."
Smoking is a social activity as well. Many people who
smoke do so as a way to start conversations and interact at parties or in
crowded places. This is known as "social smoking," and it usually
involves alcohol as a complement.
Many teenagers start smoking due to peer pressure. They
may also smoke to feel more mature or as a form of rebellion against parental
authority. It has been proved that children are also more likely to smoke if
their parents do.
PEOPLE VIEW ON SMOKING
None of the much flaunted appeals of cigarette
advertisers, such as superior taste and mildness, induces us to become smokers
or to choose one brand in preference to another. Despite the emphasis put on
such qualities by advertisers, they are minor considerations. This is one of
the first facts we discovered when we asked several hundred people, from all
walks of life, why they liked to smoke cigarettes. Smoking is as much a
psychological pleasure as it is a physiological satisfaction. As one of our
respondents explained: "It is not the taste that counts. It's that sense
of satisfaction you get from a cigarette that you can't get from anything
else."
PEOPLE VIEW SMOKING AS FUN
What is the nature of this psychological pleasure? It can
be traced to the universal desire for self-expression. None of us ever
completely outgrows his childhood. We are constantly hunting for the carefree
enjoyment we knew as children. As we grew older, we had to subordinate our
pleasures to work and to the necessity for unceasing effort. Smoking, for many
of us, then, became a substitute for our early habit of following the whims of
the moment; it becomes a legitimate excuse for interrupting work and snatching
a moment of pleasure. "You sometimes get tired of working intensely,"
said an accountant whom we interviewed, "and if you sit back for the
length of a cigarette, you feel much fresher afterwards. It's a peculiar thing,
but I wouldn't think of just sitting back without a cigarette. I guess a
cigarette somehow gives me a good excuse."
PEOPLE VIEW SMOKING AS A REWARD
Most of us are hungry for rewards. We want to be patted
on the back. A cigarette is a reward that we can give ourselves as often as we
wish. When we have done anything well, for instance, we can congratulate
ourselves with a cigarette, which certifies, in effect, that we have been
"good boys." We can promise ourselves: "When I have finished
this piece of work, when I have written the last page of my report, I'll
deserve a little fun. I'll have a cigarette."
The first and last cigarette in the day are especially
significant rewards. The first one, smoked right after breakfast, is a sort of
anticipated recompense. The smoker has work to do, and he eases himself into
the day's activities as pleasantly as possible. He gives himself a little
consolation prize in advance, and at the same time manages to postpone the evil
hour when he must begin his hard day's work. The last cigarette of the day is
like "closing a door." It is something quite definite. One smoker
explained: "I nearly always smoke a cigarette before going to bed. That
finishes the day. I usually turn the light out after I have smoked the last
cigarette, and then turn over to sleep."
Smoking is often merely a conditioned reflex. Certain
situations, such as coming out of the subway, beginning and ending work,
voluntary and involunatary interruptions of work, feelings of hunger, and many
others regulate the timetable of smoking. Often a smoker may not even want a
cigarette particularly, but he will see someone else take one and then he feels
that he must have one, too.
While to many people smoking is fun, and a reward in
itself, it more often accompanies other pleasures. At meals, a cigarette is
somewhat like another course. In general, smoking introduces a holiday spirit
into everyday living. It rounds out other forms of enjoyment and makes them one
hundred per cent satisfactory.
PEOPLE VIEW SMOKING AS AN ORAL
PLEASURE
As we have said, to explain the pleasure derived from
smoking as taste experience alone, is not sufficient. For one thing, such an
explanation leaves out the powerful erotic sensitivity of the oral zone. Oral
pleasure is just as fundamental as sexuality and hunger. It functions with full
strength from earliest childhood. There is a direct connection between
thumbsucking and smoking. "In school I always used to chew a pencil or a
pen," said a journalist, in reply to our questions. "You should have
seen the collection I had. They used to be chewed to bits. Whenever I try to
stop smoking for a while, I get something to chew on, either a pipe or a
menthol cigarette. You just stick it in your mouth and keep on sucking. And I
also chew a lot of gum when I want to cut down on smoking...."
The satisfied expression on a smoker's face when he
inhales the smoke is ample proof of his sensuous thrill. The immense power of
the yearning for a cigarette, especially after an enforced abstinence, is
acknowledged by habitual smokers. One of our respondents said: "When you
don't get a cigarette for a long time and you are kind of on pins, the first
drag goes right down to your heels."
PEOPLE SMOKE TO PASS TIME
Frequently the burning down of a cigarette functions
psychologically as a time indicator. A smoker waiting for someone who is late
says to himself, "Now I'll smoke one more cigarette, and then I am
off." One person explained, "It is much easier to watch a cigarette
get smaller and smaller than to keep watching a clock and look at the hands
dragging along."
In some countries, the farmers report distances in terms
of the number of pipes, as, for example, "It's about three pipes from here
to Smithtown."
A cigarette not only measures time, but also seems to
make time pass more rapidly. That is why waiting periods almost autuomatically
stimulate the desire to smoke. But a deeper explanation of this function of
smoking is based on the fact that smoking is ersatz activity. Impatience is a
common feature of our times, but there are many situations which compel us to
be patient. When we are in a hurry, and yet have to wait, a cigarette gives us
something to do during that trying interval. The experience of wanting to act,
but being unable to do so, is very unpleasant and may even, in extreme cases,
cause attacks of nervous anxiety. Cigarettes may then have a psychotherapeutic
effect. This helps to explain why soldiers, waiting for the signal to attack,
sometimes value a cigarette more than food.
PEOPLE SMOKE TO KILL LONLINESS
Frequently, our respondents remarked that smoking
cigaretees is like being with a friend. Said one, "When I lean back and
light my cigarette and see the glow in the dark, I am not alone any
more...." In one sense, a cigarette seems to be something alive. When it
is lighted it appears to be awakened, brought to life. In a French moving
picture (Daybreak) the hunted criminal, played by Jean Gabin, holds out as long
as he has his cigarettes. He barricades himself against the police and stands
siege courageously for some time -- until his last cigarette is gone. Then he
gives up.
The companionable character of cigarettes is also
reflected in the fact that they help us make friends. In many ways, smoking has
the same effect drinking has. It helps to break down social barriers. Two
smokers out on a date light up a cigarette as soon as they get into their car.
"It's just the right start for an evening," they say. Immediately
they feel at ease, for they have found an interest they both share.
We could report many true anecdotes to illustrate how
cigarettes bring people together. One such story was related by a middle-aged
lady: "A long time ago, on a steamer, there was a boy I was quite eager to
meet... but there was no one to introduce us.... The second day out, he was
siting at a table right next to me, and I was puffing away at my cigarette. The
ashes on my cigarette were getting longer and longer, and I had no ash tray.
Suddenly he jumped up and brought me one. That's how the whole thing started.
We arestill happily married."
PEOPLE LOVE TO WATCH SMOKE
In mythology and religion, smoke is full of meaning. Its
floating intangibility and unreal character have made it possible for
imaginative man to see therein mystery and magic. Even for us moderns, smoke
has a strong fascination. To the cigarette smoker, the clouds he puffs out seem
to represent a part of himself. Just as most people like to watch their own
breath on cold winter days, so they like to watch cigarette smoke, which
similarly makes one's breath visible. This explains the emotional attitudes of
many toward smoke. "Smoke is fascinating," said one of the people we
interviewed. "I like to watch the smoke. On a rainy day, I sort of lie in
a haze in the middle of the room and let my thoughts wander while I smoke and
wonder where the smoke goes."
The desire to make things is deep-rooted -- and smoke is
manufactured by the smoker himself. Smoking provides satisfaction because it is
a playful, creative activity. This fact was well stated by one cigarette
devotee as follows: "It's a fascinating thing to watch the smoke take
shape. The smoke, like clouds, can form different shapes.... You like to sit
back and blow rings and then blow another rings through the first ones. You are
perfectly relaxed."
PEOPLE SMOKE FOR THE MEMORIES
Certain moments in our lives are closely linked with
cigarettes. These situations often leave on people's memories an important
imprint never to be forgotten. Here is such an occasion, described by an office
clerk of twenty-one. "...I can remember the moments when I returned home -
no matter how late - after having been out with a girl on a Saturday night.
Before going to bed, I'd sit on the fire escape for a while and enjoy a smoke.
I'd turn around so that I could see all the smoke going up. At the same time,
the windows would be bright with lights on the other side of the courtyard. I
would watch what the people were doing. I would sit, and watch, and think about
what my girl and I had talked about and what a nice time we had had together.
Then I'd throw the cigarette away and go to bed. I feel these were really the
most contented moments in my life...."
"I remember one time we were in North Africa on a
trip and it was evening," said one of our respondents, a nurse about
twenty=seven years of age. "During the day, I had noticed there was a
lovely spot to sit, across the way from the hotel where we were staying. I went
there at night, and sat looking at the stars and the tall cypresses illuminated
against the night sky. I was far away in my thoughts. I was thinking of God and
the beautiful world he had made. The smoke from my cigarette rose slowly into
the sky. I was alone, and at the time I was a part of all the world around
me....".
PEOPLE SMOKE TO THINK CLEARLY
The mind can concentrate best when all outside stimuli
have been excluded. Smoking literally provides a sort of "smoke
screen" that helps to shut out distractions. This explains why many people
who were interviewed reported that they cannot think or write without a
cigarette. They argued that moderate smoking may even stimulate mental
alertness. It gives us a focal point for our attention. It also gives our hands
something to do; otherwise they might make us self-conscious and interfere with
mental activity. On the other hand, our respondents admit that smoking too much
may reduce their efficiency.
PEOPLE SMOKE TO RELAX
One shortcoming of our modern culture is the universal
lack of adequate relaxation. Many of us not only do not know how to relax, but
do not take time to learn. Smoking helps us to relax because, like music, it is
rhythmic. Smoking gives us a legitimate excuse to linger a little longer after
meals, to stop work for a few minutes, to sit at home without doing anything
that requires effort. Here is a nostalgic comment contributed by a strong
defender of smoking: "After a long day's work, to get home and sit in a
chair and stretch my legs 'way out, and then to sit back and just smoke a
cigarette and think of nothing, just blow the smoke in the air - that's what I
like to do when I've had a pretty tough day." The restful effect of
moderate smoking explains why people working under great stress use more
tobacco.
PEOPLE TEND TO REDUCE TENSION
THROUGH SMOKING
In times of high tension, cigarettes provide relief, as
indicated by the following typical comments of one of our respondents:
"When I have a problem, and it comes back and back, warningly saying,
'Well, what are you going to do about this?' a cigarette almost acts like a
consolation. Somehow it relieves the pressure on my chest. The feeling of
relief is almost like what you feel in your chest after you have cried because
something has hurt you very much. Relaxing is not the right kind of word for
that feeling. It is like having been in a stuffy room for a long time and at
last getting out for a deep breath of air." That man's explanation comes
very close to stating the scientific reason why smoking brings relief. Worry,
anxiety, depress us not only psychologically but also physiologically. When a
person feels depressed, the rhythm of his breathing becomes upset. A short and
shallow breath creates a heavy feeling in the chest. Smoking may relieve mental
depression by forcing a rhythmic expansion of the breast and thus restoring the
normal pace of breathing. The "weight on the chest" is removed.
This connection between smoking and respiration accounts
for the common expression, "Smoking helps us to let off steam." When
we are enraged, we breathe heavily. Smoking makes us breath more steadily, and
thus calms us down.
SOME PEOPLE JUST WANT TO TASTE
CIGARETTE
Most people like the smell of tobacco but dislike the
taste of a cigarette. Frequently we were reminded that "a cigarette never
tastes as good as it smells. One usually very much dislikes his first
cigarette. Taste for cigarettes must be acquired slowly. And whenever a smoker tries
out a new brand, with a lightly different taste, he finds that he has to repeat
this process of becoming accustomed to the taste. Often smokers who say they do
not like the taste of certain brands really mean that they are not accustomed
to it. Few advertisers of cigarettes realize that it takes time for a smoker to
change his taste habits. No matter how pleasant the taste qualities of a brand
may seem to be, at first the unaccustomed taste will be disliked. One of our
respondents made the following interesting comment on this point: "I went
to Bulgaria once and was forced to smoke Bulgarian cigarettes. I tried one
brand after another till I had gone through five brands. Finally, the sixth
brand seemed to be perfect. I discovered much later that any of the other
brands might have become my preferred brand if only I had tried it in the sixth
place. It just took me that long to learn to appreciate Bulgarian
tobacco."
PEOPLE COME BACK TO SMOKE AFTER
THE FIRST TASTE
Much of this guilt feeling can be traed directly to one's
first cigarette, which the older generation remember as a forbidden and sinful
thing. Their fathers considered the habit an educational problem, whereas many
parents nowadays have adopted a "modern" attitude toward smoking. Here
is what one such father said: "I told my son I thought he was a little
young... He is seventeen. It might not do him any harm to wait another year or
two. Then I remembered my own first cigarette and what awful stuff I had to
smoke in secret. In a way, my son is lucky to be able to start with a good
cigarette without running the danger of ruining his health. I gave him a pack
of the brand I smoke."
Most of us remember vividly the first cigarette we
smoked. "I certainly remember my first cigarette," said one of our respondents.
"We were a bunch of boys on our way to a football game. I had trouble
lighting my cigarette, and at that moment a man passed by and yelled at me:
'Throw that cigarette away, you rascal!' I was so shocked and frightened that I
obeyed his command without hesitation. But only a few minutes later, I lighted
another one just to demonstrate to myself that I was not afraid.
CIGARETTES A PACK OF FEELING
A new pack of cigarettes gives one a pleasant feeling. A
full, firm pack in the hand signifies that one is provided for, and gives
satisfaction, whereas an almost empty pack creates a feeling of want and gives
a decidely unpleasant impression. The empty pack gives us a feeling of real
frustration and deprivation.
During the seventeenth century, religious leaders and
statesmen in many countries condemned the use of tobacco. Smokers were
excommunicated by the Church and some of them were actually condemned to death
and executed. But the habit of smoking spread rapidly all over the world. The
psychological pleasures derived proved much more powerful than religous, moral,
and legal persuasions. As in the case of the prohibition experiment in the
United States, repressive measures seem to have aroused a spirit of popular
rebellion and helped to increase the use of tobacco.
If we consider all the pleasure and advatnages provided,
in a most democratic and international fashion, by this little white paper
roll, we shall understand why it is difficult to destroy its power by means of
warnings, threats, or preachings. This pleasure miracle has so much to offer
that we can safely predict the cigarette is here to stay. Our psychological
analysis is not intended as a eulogy of the habit of smoking, but rather as an
objective report on why people smoke cigarettes. Perhaps this will seem more
convincing if we reveal a personal secret: We ourselves do not smoke at all. We
may be missing a great deal.
REFERENCE
1.
Ernest
Dichter (1947) The Psychology of Everyday Living.
2.
"WHO/WPRO-Smoking
Statistics". World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western
Pacific. 2002-05-28. http://www.wpro.who.int/media_centre/fact_sheets/fs_20020528.htm.
Retrieved 2009-01-01.
3.
Gilman
& Xun 2004, pp. 46–57
4.
WHO
REPORT on the global TOBACCO epidemic 2008, pp. 267–288
5.
Leslie
Iverson, "Why do We Smoke?: The Physiology of Smoking" in Smoke, p.
320
6.
MMWR
April 12, 2002 / 51(14);300-3
7.
BMJ,
Am J Public Health 1995:1223-1230 doi:10.1136/bmj.38142.554479.AE (published 22
June 2004)
8.
Am
J Public Health 1995:1223-1230
9.
Thun
MJ, Hannan LM, Adams-Campbell LL, Boffetta P, Buring JE et al. (2008).
"Lung cancer occurrence in never-smokers: An analysis of 13 cohorts and 22
cancer registry studies". PLoS Med 5 (9): e185.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050185. PMC 2531137. PMID 18788891. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2531137.
10. BMJ 1997;315:973–80
11. American Legacy Foundation factsheet on lung cancer;
their cited source is: CDC (Centers for Disease Control) The Health
Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. 2004.
12. Nyboe J, Jensen G, Appleyard M, Schnohr P. (1989).
"Risk factors for acute myocardial infarction in Copenhagen. I:
Hereditary, educational and socioeconomic factors. Copenhagen City Heart
Study.". Eur Heart J 10 (10): 910–6. PMID 2598948.
