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<p>Grounded in ethical theories of manipulation, autonomy, and informed choice, this research examines whether asymmetric health warning schemes distort consumers’ comparative risk judgments across substitutable harmful products. Four experimental studies demonstrate that cigarette graphic health warnings reliably evoke smoking-related fear that, through contrast-based spillover effects, positions e-cigarettes as comparatively less harmful, generates more favorable attitudes, and increases purchase and trial intentions. These effects operate through a serial mediation process in which fear increases motivation to quit smoking, which in turn directs behavioral intentions toward e-cigarettes rather than toward the cessation of nicotine use. Study 4 further reveals that asymmetric warning conditions in which only cigarettes carry graphic warnings maximize psychological reactance by signaling selective regulatory targeting, whereas extending graphic warnings to e-cigarettes attenuates both the contrast-based and reactance-driven spillover effects. The results support warning congruence as an ethically preferable regulatory design that better preserves the conditions for informed comparative judgment, and carry implications for ethically responsible policy design, corporate conduct, and consumer welfare in markets involving harmful but legally available products.</p>

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Unintended Consequences: The Effects of Cigarette Graphic Health Warnings on Electronic Cigarette Risk Perceptions and Intentions

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月20日

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  • Kamal Ahmmad,
  • Elizabeth Howlett,
  • Mitchel R. Murdock

摘要

Grounded in ethical theories of manipulation, autonomy, and informed choice, this research examines whether asymmetric health warning schemes distort consumers’ comparative risk judgments across substitutable harmful products. Four experimental studies demonstrate that cigarette graphic health warnings reliably evoke smoking-related fear that, through contrast-based spillover effects, positions e-cigarettes as comparatively less harmful, generates more favorable attitudes, and increases purchase and trial intentions. These effects operate through a serial mediation process in which fear increases motivation to quit smoking, which in turn directs behavioral intentions toward e-cigarettes rather than toward the cessation of nicotine use. Study 4 further reveals that asymmetric warning conditions in which only cigarettes carry graphic warnings maximize psychological reactance by signaling selective regulatory targeting, whereas extending graphic warnings to e-cigarettes attenuates both the contrast-based and reactance-driven spillover effects. The results support warning congruence as an ethically preferable regulatory design that better preserves the conditions for informed comparative judgment, and carry implications for ethically responsible policy design, corporate conduct, and consumer welfare in markets involving harmful but legally available products.