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March 19, 2012

Smoking may restore tapped-out self-control resources

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that when they deplete a smoker's self control, smoking a cigarette may restore self-control.

The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, exposed a test group and a control group -- totaling 132 nicotine dependent smokers -- to an emotional video depicting environmental damage. One group in the study expressed their natural emotional reactions (no depletion of self-control) while the second group suppressed their responses (self-control depletion). Half of the participants in each group were subsequently allowed to smoke a cigarette. Everyone then was asked to complete a frustrating task that required self-control.

"Our goal was to study whether tobacco smoking affects an individual's self-control resources," said lead author Bryan W. Heckman, M.A., a graduate student at the Moffitt Tobacco Research and Intervention Program and the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida. "We hypothesized that participants who underwent a self-control depletion task would demonstrate less persistence on behavioral tasks requiring self-control as compared to those with self-control intact, when neither group was allowed to smoke. However, we also hypothesized that we would not find this performance decrement among participants who were permitted to smoke."

The investigators' hypotheses were supported.

"We found that smoking did have a restorative effect on an individual's depleted self-control resources," said Heckman. "Moreover, smoking restored self-control, in part, by improving smokers' positive mood."

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