The Food and Drug Administration released nine new graphic warnings for cigarette packages today -- the first new labels in more than two decades. "The introduction of these warnings is expected to have a significant public health impact by decreasing the number of smokers, resulting in lives saved, increased life expectancy and lower medical costs," the FDA's web site states.
"Bigger is better, just because people notice [the labels] more," Cohen explained.
Research has shown that warning labels are effective in getting smokers to consider quitting.
A recent Centers for Disease Control study found in 13 out of 14 countries that ratified a World Health Organization treaty requiring warning labels on cigarette packs, a quarter of smokers who noticed them indicated they were considering quitting.
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act, which gave FDA the authority to regulate tobacco, mandated that the agency issue requirements for cigarette labels large enough to make up 50% of the front and rear panels of the package, with specific wording of risk warnings, including "color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking."
What the study didn't address: whether or not people actually quit as a result of seeing the images.
FDA spokesperson Jeffrey Ventura says that isn't the point. The study, he says, is just one data point in a larger body of literature that finds warning labels effective. Gruesome warning labels aren't new; over 40 nations already require them. Ventura adds that this analysis wasn't needed for the FDA decision. [HBO's] "The images in other countries are extremely graphic, but I think these images weren't necessarily chosen for shock and awe." Science Insider asked Tavris what the current research in behavioral psychology has to say about the effectiveness of fear imagery.
The new FDA labels do suggest an action: stop smoking. "Dissonance is a pretty powerful phenomenon," says Tavris.
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