Physical threat and self-evaluative emotions in smoking cessation

Negative self-evaluative emotions (e.g., feeling dissatisfied with oneself, feeling stupid) are considered to indicate a threat to the self that can be caused by an external physical threat (e.g., smoking). A sample of 363 smokers was tested twice, with an interval of 8 months. Prospective analyses showed that self-evaluative emotions mediated the relationship between the other psychological factors and quitting activity. In turn, the relationship between self-evaluative emotions and quitting activity was mediated largely by intention to quit. The results indicate a primary role of self-evaluative emotions in the motivation to quit smoking, and this should be taken into account when designing smoking-cessation interventions.