Interventions to Correct Misinformation about Tobacco Products

Abstract

In 2006, the U.S. District Court held that tobacco companies had "falsely and fraudulently" denied: tobacco causes lung cancer; environmental smoke endangers children's respiratory systems; nicotine is highly addictive; low tar cigarettes were less harmful when they were not; they marketed to children; they manipulated nicotine delivery to enhance addiction; and they concealed and destroyed evidence to prevent accurate public knowledge. The courts required the tobacco companies to repair this misinformation. Several studies evaluated types of corrective statements (CS). We argue that most CS proposed ("simple CS's") will fall prey to "belief echoes" leaving affective remnants of the misinformation untouched while correcting underlying knowledge. Alternative forms for CS ("enhanced CS's") are proposed that include narrative forms, causal linkage, and emotional links to the receiver.