Vitamin pills may undermine motivation to reduce smoking

A new study has shown that smokers who take multivitamins compensated by their healthy behaviors more cigarette smoking. This is an example of what psychologists call it licensing effect, which occurs when people create a virtuous choice that allows them a poor choice later on, such as when someone ' earns ' a binge weekend by avoiding alcohol all week. In this case, smokers take multivitamins, a healthy choice that they believe reduces the risk of cancer and them to smoke more. In fact, there is no evidence that multi vitamins protect against cancer.

The study, published online in the journal addiction, describes two experiments carried out by the authors. In the first experiment, conducted as a test dummy health-food, 74 daily smokers were given a placebo, but half were told that she had a vitamin c supplement. The smokers took a one-hour unrelated survey in which they were allowed to smoke. Those who thought they had a vitamin pill smoked almost twice as much as those who knew they had taken a placebo (control group), and reported greater feelings of General invulnerability.

The second experiment was an extended version of the first, with 80 participants taken from a larger community and told the half they were taking a multivitamin pill. The one-hour survey also included questions about the attitude of multivitamins. The smokers who thought they had smoked a multivitamin once again more than the control group. But this time, researchers found that smokers with more positive attitudes towards multi vitamins under the multivitamin group, a higher boost in perceived General invulnerability experienced and even more than their less enthusiastic counterparts smoked. The amount of extra non-smoking increased in other words, if the smoker spoke a conscious belief that multivitamins increased health.

Health-conscious smokers who take vitamins can therefore lead to fundamental but false beliefs that they are invulnerable to the major health risks associated with smoking, which will lead them to smoke more and increase their overall health risk. Says lead author Chiou Wen-Bin, "smokers that food supplements may be crazy into thinking that they are protected against cancer and other diseases. Health conscious smokers to remind that multivitamins are not cancer that can help determine their smoking or even encourage them to stop. "

Article reference:
Wiley-Blackwell