Smoking Behavior: How is it Related to Locus of Control, Death Anxiety, and Belief in Afterlife?

Abstract

Studies relating smoking behavior to personality and attitudinal measures have given inconsistent results. The present study investigated the degree of relationship between smoking behavior and four dependent measures of life, death, and afterlife beliefs. Results from a sample of 300 college-age Ss indicated that none of the hypothesized relationships reached statistical significance. A trend toward significance was found in the degree of relationship between smoking and an external locus of control belief, while education was the only demographic variable to show a significant relationship to smoking behavior. Implications were drawn to explain the ineffectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns in spite of the known hazards of smoking behavior.