Employing Episodic Future Thinking About Mating Opportunities to Induce Lower Cigarette Consumption

Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of preventable illness and premature death worldwide. Individuals who smoke tobacco tend to develop a physical addiction to nicotine. Behavioral interventions have been shown to be an effective means of assisting with smoking cessation. Smoking cessation interventions, especially those of a brief and intensive nature, have been shown to be a cost-effective means of preventing negative health outcomes and extending life expectancy.

The PRIME theory of motivation regards cigarette addiction as a disorder of motivation. Accordingly, this theory seeks to help practitioners to identify effective means of overcoming addition through an analysis of the plans, responses, motives, impulses, and evaluations of smokers. Behavioral interventions often employ motivation interviewing with the goal of enhancing the motivation of smokers to quit by increasing their enthusiasm for positive life outcomes associated with quitting as well as giving a sense of purpose to this behavioral change.

Evolutionary perspectives on human behavior suggest that the desire to find a mate is a fundamental social motive that drives much of human behavior. Accordingly, encouraging smokers to think about how quitting could be beneficial to their mating goals could be an effective means of enhancing motivation to quit. A brief intervention that requires smokers to employ episodic future thinking (EFT) has been shown to effectively reduce smoking behavior. The current proposal aims to (1) develop and test the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention that employs EFT about how immediate quitting of smoking could enhance prospects for mating success and (2) refine this intervention by identifying key individual differences that impact its effectiveness, in order to maximize successful cessation outcomes by targeting populations that would be more strongly motivated by mating-related goals.

Aim 1: To develop and test the effectiveness of a behavioral smoking cessation intervention that employs EFT about future mating opportunities. EFT involves thinking about oneself experiencing a specific future event. Research indicates that this type of thinking reduces the tendency for people to discount the future costs associated with current behaviors and to reduce cigarette consumption. Since mating goals are of fundamental importance to human social life, an intervention that involves EFT about how quitting smoking could lead to increased likelihood of success in a specific future mating situation may be an especially effective means of motivating smokers to quit. Specifically, smokers will be instructed to imagine how quitting today could improve their chances of attracting a mate in a specific future mating situation.

Aim 2: To determine whether individual differences in mating motives moderate the effectiveness of the proposed intervention. People who are involved in a committed romantic relationship are often less motivated to seek a new mate than people who are single. Furthermore, some people are generally more motivated to seek new mates than others, regardless of relationship status. Self-report measures are commonly used to measure individual differences in preference for sexual variety and motivation to seek new mates. The investigators aim to determine whether relationship status and mating motivation moderate the effectiveness of the proposed mating-EFT smoking cessation intervention. The investigators predict that this intervention would be most effective among individuals who are not currently involved in a committed romantic relationship and are highly motivated to seek new mates.