The Cool Thing that May Have Helped Lower Smoking Rates

by Anna Maltby


Courtesy of AMC
Courtesy of AMC

Despite what Betty Draper on Mad Men may lead you to believe, it's way less common than ever before to see people smoking on television. And according to new research, that could be one reason behind the drop in smoking rates in the U.S. over the past few decades.


Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed tobacco usage during more than 1,800 hours of TV dramas between 1955 and 2010, as well as looking at the decline in smoking rates during that time and other factors that may have contributed to the drop.

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They controlled for the rise in cigarette prices over that time and a 1971 TV and radio cigarette ad ban, and they estimate that the decline in smoking on TV has contributed to an annual smoking decrease of two packs per adult.

"We were surprised by the size of the impact," study author Dan Romer, Ph.D., associate director of the Annenberg Center, told SELF. "We compared it to the effect of changes in price and found that it was half the size of price over the past 50 years."

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Now, despite all the controls, this is technically still just a correlation -- only a randomized, controlled experiment could establish causation -- but it's still worth noting, especially since much of the literature on quitting smoking suggests that smoking "cues" like seeing other smoke can be a trigger.

"The literature suggests that smokers trying to quit should avoid being around smoking cues, such as people who smoke, places where cigarettes are available and socially acceptable, and cues from screens such as movies, TV, and in online environments," study author Patrick E. Jamieson, Ph.D, of the Annenberg Center, told SELF. "Because it is hard to quit I also recommend people not start smoking in the first place."

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