Fear Campaigns for a "stop smoking plan" don't work

Doctors Doll and Hill in England made a study of 3,000 patients over forty-five years old and reported: Smokers have a 50% greater chance of getting lung cancer than non-smokers.

Doctor Ivan Vaselevich Strelchuk, Russian physician and research specialist, declares: "Smokers are ten times more likely to get cancer than non-smokers."

Indeed, there have been accurate investigations of the cancer-smoking link in nine countries. In every study, the figures were about the same. The connection is always there; the grim ratio is always there.

AND IN ADDITION . . .

Bronchitis, thromboangitis obliterans, premature births, underweight infants at birth, increased mortality rates for peptic ulcer patients, cancer of the mouth and larynx and oesophagus, eye ailments, decreased sexual abilities-all these diseases or conditions have also been linked directly to smokers.

Statistical information as conclusive and damning as these proven odds that you may suffer a painful death many years in advance of normal life expectancy might seem sufficient to persuade most persons to abandon the habit immediately. But they're not.

And even recognition of the fact that the statistics have been gathered by an unbiased group of scientific researchers, and released by the medical profession only in the interest of saving lives, isn't sufficient. Why?

Well, there's a psychological finding that goes a little way toward explaining why this campaign hasn't been effective. "Fear campaigns" rarely work. Similar campaigns have been just as ineffective against automobile accidents, H-bomb testing, and inadequate protection from radioactive fallout.