Can dissuasive cigarettes influence young peoples’ perceptions of smoking?

Background In order to counter the attractiveness of cigarettes, Article 11 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control mentions the possibility of including a health warning on cigarettes. The objective of this study was toexplore perceptions of cigarettes designed to be dissuasive (either displaying a text health warning or pictogram, unattractively coloured, or a combination of these). Methods In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 people in France aged 15-25 years (11daily smokers, 10 occasional smokers, 10 non-smokers, 15 females, 16 males). Participants were shown the different dissuasive cigarettes (displaying the warning \u27Smoking kills\u27, a ‘skull and crossbones’ pictogram, unattractive shades of brown or green, or a combination of all three). Open-ended questions were asked about the attractiveness of the cigarettes, perception of risk, the image of the smoker, and influence on desire to quit or not to start. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Manual coding and « IRaMuTeQ » software was used to analyse the data. Results The different dissuasive elements used were found to increase negative health perceptions (e.g.  increase risk), reduce positive smoker image and the perceived pleasure of smoking (e.g. embarrassment of smoking in front of friends), decrease desire to start smoking and increase desire to quit. The most dissuasive cigarette was an unattractively coloured cigarette which displayed both the warning \u27smoking kills\u27 and \u27skull and bones\u27 pictogram. Conclusion This study highlights the importance of the appearance of the cigarette, and suggests that dissuasive cigarettes may be an innovative tobacco control measure for governments

Peut-on influencer la représentation du tabagisme et l’envie de fumer chez les jeunes en modifiant le design des cigarettes

The objective of this research is to study the role of deterrent cigarettes (deterrence activated via colour, a warning label and a pictogram) on perceptions and smoking behaviour among youth people (15-25 years). The results show that different elements (green or brown colours, degree of covering, a warning, a « skull and cross bones » pictogram) impact the negative representations raised by the tobacco product (dangers), affect the image of smokers, reduce the pleasure to smoke and smoking behavioural intentions

A rapid evidence assessment of UK citizen and industry understandings of sustainability - Why our understanding of sustainable food is important when making food choices

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London and collaborative partners to carry out a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) on UK citizen perceptions of food sustainability. This Executive Summary presents the findings of this REA, along with academic definitions of food sustainability (and how citizen definitions compare to these), and a rapid review of industry and NGO approaches to sustainability amongst a small random selection of 21 organisations across the food system. Please refer to the full report and appendices for detailed findings and methodology. The main research question addressed is: What does sustainability mean to UK citizens when it comes to food and diet? The report addresses the following secondary questions: How does the UK academic literature define sustainability, ‘sustainable food’ and ‘sustainable diet’?, how do citizens’ perceptions compare to this, and ‘What does sustainability mean to industry when it comes to food and diet?’. 'A number of sub-questions and themes were explored to answer the main research question, such as understanding and importance of sustainability and its impact on food choices, trade-offs, drivers and barriers to sustainable food choices and differences across demographic groups. To note: In this Executive Summary we refer to communities and individuals in the UK as “UK citizens”, rather than UK consumers. The use of the term citizen is not meant to be a reference to citizenship either directly via birth in the UK or through the process of naturalization

Poor prospects for avian biodiversity in amazonian oil palm

Expansion of oil palm plantations across the humid tropics has precipitated massive loss of tropical forest habitats and their associated speciose biotas. Oil palm plantation monocultures have been identified as an emerging threat to Amazonian biodiversity, but there are no quantitative studies exploring the impact of these plantations on the biome’s biota. Understanding these impacts is extremely important given the rapid projected expansion of oil palm cultivation in the basin. Here we investigate the biodiversity value of oil palm plantations in comparison with other dominant regional land-uses in Eastern Amazonia. We carried out bird surveys in oil palm plantations of varying ages, primary and secondary forests, and cattle pastures. We found that oil palm plantations retained impoverished avian communities with a similar species composition to pastures and agrarian land-uses and did not offer habitat for most forest-associated species, including restricted range species and species of conservation concern. On the other hand, the forests that the oil palm companies are legally obliged to protect hosted a relatively species-rich community including several globally-threatened bird species. We consider oil palm to be no less detrimental to regional biodiversity than other agricultural land-uses and that political pressure exerted by large landowners to allow oil palm to count as a substitute for native forest vegetation in private landholdings with forest restoration deficits would have dire consequences for regional biodiversity

Does Crime Pay For Violent Program-Embedded Ads? Does Crime Pay For Violent Program-Embedded Ads?

ABSTRACT -This paper aims at studying the impact of emotional context in television programs on ad memorization. Many experimental works show that affect is an important factor to be considered, so as to better understand both consumer behavior in general and memorization phenomena in particular. Here, we partially replicate ABSTRACT This paper aims at studying the impact of emotional context in television programs on ad memorization. Many experimental works show that affect is an important factor to be considered, so as to better understand both consumer behavior in general and memorization phenomena in particular. Here, we partially replicate Bushman and Bonacci's (2002) recent work and invalidate their main findings, namely that emotionally neutral TV programs entail better ad memorization and retention, whereas we confirm the major role of arousal on memory consolidation processes, by showing significantly higher memory scores for violent programs

Effect of combining fear and anger in anti-smoking messages to discourage young smokers

International audienceObjectives: Previous studies have reported mixed results in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use among young people. The present study investigates the influence of a combined emotions (fear and anger) approach to strengthen the persuasive impact of anti-smoking messages aimed at young smokers. Study design: The study adopts a between-subject design experiment. Methods: Participants were exposed to either a fear appeal or a fear and anger appeal message, after which they answered questions about their emotions, perceived message effectiveness, and intention to reduce cigarette consumption and to quit smoking. An original measure of the co-occurrence of emotions felt by the participants (minimum [MIN] score) was used and mediation analyses were conducted to test the relationship between the emotional content of the message and behavioral intentions through the co-occurrence of fear and anger and perceived message effectiveness. Results: The findings show that the co-occurrence of fear and anger felt by individuals and perceived message effectiveness serially mediate the positive influence of a fear and anger appeal message compared to a fear alone appeal on changes in intention behavior (intention to reduce cigarette consumption, indirect effect = 0.152, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.014, 0.340], and intention to quit smoking, indirect effect = 0.236, 95% CI [0.096, 0.413]). Conclusions: The study shows the interest of combining negative emotions in prevention messages and offers guidance for government agencies responsible for tobacco control policies to help them improve the effectiveness of anti-smoking messages. © 2022 The Royal Society for Public Healt

'Our daily bread': Maurice Potron, from Catholicism to mathematical economics

Maurice Potron (1872-1942) is a French Jesuit and mathematician whose main source of inspiration in economics is the encyclical Rerum Novarum. With virtually no knowledge in economic theory, he wrote down a linear model of production in which he formalized the notions of just prices and just wages. As early as 1911, he used the Perron-Frobenius theorem to prove the existence of a positive solution and established a duality result between the quantity side and the price side of the model. He returned to economics in the 1930s, but in both periods he failed to make a lasting impression upon economists. JEL Classification Code: B3Catholic doctrine, duality, Hawkins-Simon, linear model of production, Perron-Frobenius, Potron, social question,