%0 Journal Article
%T Self
%A Irina A Iles
%A James Butler
%A Min Qi Wang
%A Robert Feldman
%A Xiaoli Nan
%A Xiaoquan Zhao
%A Zexin Ma
%J Health Education Journal
%@ 1748-8176
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0017896918805129
%X Promoting smoking cessation through effective health messaging among African American smokers is of great urgency as African Americans suffer disproportionally more from smoking-related diseases compared to White smokers. This research examines the potential impact of self-affirmation on reducing defensive processing of graphic cigarette warning labels among African American smokers. We conducted an experimental study in which participants were instructed to self-affirm (or not) prior to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels. We found that although self-affirmation had no main effect on defensive processing, it interacted with initial/preexisting attitudes towards smoking to influence defensive responses such as message derogation and perceived message manipulation. For participants with more positive initial attitudes towards smoking, self-affirmation led to reduced message derogation and perceived message manipulation. For these individuals, we also found an indirect effect of self-affirmation on intentions to quit smoking through perceived message manipulation. Self-affirmation had largely no effects on participants with less positive initial attitudes towards smoking. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed
%K African Americans
%K defensive processing
%K graphic warning labels
%K self-affirmation
%K smoking cessation
%K USA
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0017896918805129