It is one of the most common vices in the U.S. today, and it can be seen just about any time on campus.
Stick your head outside of the library or any other academic building, and you’ll be sure to see at least a few cigarette smokers lighting up.
Smokers begin the habit for any number of reasons, ranging from the head rush it provides to the social aspect of sharing a smoke break with co-workers or friends.
Smokers also have different levels of involvement; some smoke a pack a day, while others only indulge every once in a while.
Senior Tyson Johnson says he smokes about one pack, or twenty cigarettes, per week. He used to smoke much more when he first picked up the habit — about two or three packs a week — mostly on his commute to and from work.
“It was a 45 minute drive there and back. It just helped to pass the time, I guess,” he said.
He says there are definitely outside factors that influence his habits, including friends, alcohol and stress. He once quit for a year and a half but picked it up again after a night of drinking.
“I definitely smoke more when I’m out drinking. It’s a way to get outside and socialize with other people,” he explained. Stress can also be a factor. Remembering some of the tougher courses he’s taken, Johnson said, “I didn’t go out and buy cartons, but I probably went through a pack every two days.”
Johnson may not smoke as much as some, but the health risks associated with any amount of smoking is undeniable. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, side effects of smoking account for about 443,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, which equals about one in five deaths each year. That number is more than the deaths caused by HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol abuse, automotive accidents, suicides and murders.
In addition, smoking has been found to cause cancers that range from leukemia to throat cancer. It may seem odd that there are so many smokers when the evidence against smoking is so grim, but the answer may lie in the fact that an estimated 80 percent of all smokers start their habit before the age of 18. In fact, like with any vice, smokers often have conflicted thoughts about their use of cigarettes.
Psychology professor Elliot Berkman knows more about the typical smoker’s mentality than most. Berkman has been working in the psychological sciences for 12 years and has spent the past three studying smoking specifically. His research is geared towards understanding how people pursue long-term goals and the cognitive, emotional and neural factors that contribute to success or failure in achieving those goals.
Berkman and his team have done various studies comparing the methods people pursue in order to get rid of the habit and have pioneered the use of text messaging in gauging subjects’ moods, cravings and smoking levels.
“We have found that negative mood states actually trigger cigarette cravings. And although it may feel good, smoking doesn’t necessarily alleviate bad mood or stress; it may in fact make it worse,” he said. In other words, smoking can create a situation where people crave something that doesn’t actually help them. “This then becomes a problem during quitting when people are stressed out and feel that they have lost their favorite coping mechanism.”
Although the research shows it may not actually help them, many smokers turn to the habit of smoking in stressful situations.
“It’s totally a crutch when you’re swamped or stressed out about school work,” said senior Neil Latourette. “It’s one of the first things I’ll do when trying to take a break from studying. I’ll go through a pack a day easy when it comes to exam time.”
He says his habit has gone from smoking a pack every three or four days when he began to now a pack about every day and a half. In addition to helping with stress, he says there is also a social factor to smoking. Latourette works in Carson Hall and says there are a few employees he knows better because of the time they share on smoke breaks. Berkman is especially interested in the way smokers think about their habit.
“To me, the most fascinating part of this work is how much we can learn from people’s brain activity that they themselves weren’t able to tell us.”
Berkman explains that part of the reason for this disconnect is what psychologists call “naive theories,” akin to rules of thumb for the mind, which are often wrong because they are based on insufficient information.
A smoker trying to quit may believe that only major stressors will affect their decision.
In reality, Berkman has found that specific activity in areas of the brain governing self-relevant information is highly predictive of whether a patient will quit. “It was as though their verbal and neural reports of which factors would contribute to their quitting were tapping two separate pieces of information.”
Whether trying to quit or not, most smokers are at least aware of the risks that accompany their favorite vice.
“It’s definitely not a healthy way to live. I guess I rationalize it in this really weird manipulative smoker’s way, like I’ll pay for it so far in the future that I’ll have hopefully have quit by then,” Latourette said. “I have this image in my head of myself quitting soon, but it never seems to happen.”
— Stephen Zegalia