Graphic Images Stick with Smokers.

• Position: CIGARETTE WARNING LABELS

If you want smokers to remember cigarette-warning labels, include a graphic image of the results of long-term smoking, suggests a study in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. A vivid image--such as a picture of a nicotine addict smoking through a surgical hole in his throat--packs an emotional punch for smokers, the researchers found.

Such images are shocking enough that smokers who viewed them actually remembered less of the associated text warning immediately afterward than did those who viewed warnings with only text or a much milder photo. However, six weeks later, fewer smokers who saw the graphic image had forgotten the warnings, compared to those who received the other messages.

"The high-emotion image sticks with smokers longer and we see less decline in what they remember about the warnings," says lead author Ellen Peters.

Even more importantly, the study showed smokers who had stronger emotional reactions to the graphic warnings reported higher risk perceptions of smoking six weeks later and had greater intentions of quitting.

"Warnings with graphic images are the best way to convey the negative health consequences of smoking in a meaningful way," adds Peters.

The researchers found something else interesting about the people who had strong emotional reactions to the warnings: even when they could not remember the...