Smoking: Risk, Perception and Policy [Hardcover]

Paul Slovic (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761923802 | ISBN-13: 978-0761923800 | Publication Date: April 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

This book presents a counter-view, based on a survey of several thousand young persons and adults, probing attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions of risk associated with smoking. The authors agree that young smokers give little or no thought to health risks or the problems of addiction. The survey data contradicts the model of informed, rational choice and underscores the need for aggressive policies to counter tobacco firms’ marketing and promotional efforts and to restrict youth access to tobacco. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

" This important book reveals why the young start smoking and why, as adults, they regret having started. It is a great contribution to helping end a national epidemic." 

(CHERYL HEALTON )

"This book is a must for everyone concerned about how to address the problem of tobacco use among young people. Virtually all new smokers are children. Many of them are in their early teens and one out of every three children who begin to smoke will die prematurely because of their use of tobacco. This book includes the most objective, thorough and authoritative research to date on the critical question about whether young people fully understand the consequences of their decision to smoke at the time they start and whether they are able to make rational decisions about this vitally important decision. It leaves the reader with no doubt about the value of efforts to better educate our young people and to empower them to resist the lure of tobacco marketing." 

(MATTHEW MYERS )

". . . Clearly written, well documented, provocative . . . incorporates theory from the fields of psychology, economics, advertising, and communication to challenge popular beliefs about the nature of addiction."

(Diana Hackbarth, RN, PhD )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 1 edition (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761923802
• ISBN-13: 978-0761923800
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,015,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Persuasive and Evocative, September 30, 2004

By 

Stephanie Harvard (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smoking: Risk, Perception and Policy (Paperback)

Paul Slovic writes a compelling foreword to this persuasive and evocative book describing the health risks to smokers and their own perceptions of them. In it, he rebutts economist Viscusi's thesis that smokers make the rational choice to light up, having weighed the risks and benefits already adequately communicated to them by public health agencies. Slovic, unlike Viscusi, does NOT hold the opinion that the money spent communicating the risk of smoking to the public could be better spent elsewhere, and the studies described in Smoking: Risk, Perception, and Policy--undertaken by distinguished scholars like Daniel Romer and Patrick Jamieson--substantiate his position. A fascinating read that unmasks smoking a cigarette as political and public health crime. Loving it!