news flash: smokers crave cigarettes when they crave cigarettes

This study on the strength of smokers’ cravings falls into the “obvious, but somebody had to verify it” category. Their previous research, however, is a bit harder to take seriously:

“We have observed previously that the idea of smoking a cigarette becomes increasingly attractive to smokers while they are craving,” said the study’s lead investigator and University of Pittsburgh professor of psychology Michael Sayette.

Verifying common sense is one thing, but verifying dictionary definitions just makes me giggle.

(Alright, I’ll be fair. If you look up the paper, the “previous research” wasn’t about smoking being more attractive in the midst of a craving, but about the smokers’ decision making process skewing the balance of pro and con. In other words, according to the researchers a craving smoker doesn’t think “cigarettes are bad but I’ll have one anyway” – she thinks “having a cigarette isn’t so bad after all”. Not a shocker, but it’s good to make the distinction.)

• Press release: Trouble Quitting?: A New Pitt-Carnegie Mellon Smoking Study May Reveal Why
• Actual paper: Exploring the Cold-to-Hot Empathy Gap in Smokers, Psychological Science