Journal of Social Issues
Volume 53, Issue 1 p. 3-11

An Introduction to the Controversy Over Tobacco

Bryan Gibson, 

Corresponding Author

Bryan Gibson

Central Michigan University

BRYAN GIBSON received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Utah and is currently Assistant Professor of Psychology at Central Michigan University. His research interests range from self-presentational strategies and the psychology of gambling, to the social psychology of smoker-nonsmoker interaction. His research on smoker-nonsmoker interaction has focused on a number of psychological variables that define these interactions. Among the variables addressed in his research are nonsmokers' stress response when forced to be near smokers; non- smokers' attributions for the outcomes of smokers, and environmental and psychological variables related to the success of public smoking regulations. This research has led to consultation with local government and public health officials regarding the most viable strategies available to implement public smoking restrictions. The results of this program of research have been published in journals such as the American Psychologist, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Department of Psychology, Sloan Hall 101, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859. Electronic mail may be sent via the Internet to [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 09 April 2010
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1997.tb02428.x
Citations: 5

Abstract

The tobacco industry has a long history of denying any harmful effects produced by its products. This strategy was first developed to deny any health risks associated with smoking, and has recently been extended to the denial of the risks of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), the addictive nature of nicotine, and the targeting of adolescents by tobacco advertisements. This has served to divert discussion of how society should address the risks of tobacco use to whether society should address tobacco use at all. If we move past these diversions and consider how society should address tobacco risks, the social sciences in general and psychology in particular have a number of insights regarding how to answer the question. The purpose of this issue of JSI is to examine some of these perspectives in an attempt to suggest how we should approach the important question of how to deal with tobacco use in our society.