Automatic associations with the sensory aspects of smoking: Positive in habitual smokers but negative in non-smokers

To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different automatic affective associations in smokers than in non-smokers, 31 smoking and 33 non-smoking students completed a single target IAT. Explicit attitudes were assessed using a semantic differential. Automatic affective associations were positive in smokers but negative in non-smokers. Only automatic affective associations but not self-reported attitudes were significantly correlated with craving. Together these findings are consistent with the idea that positive (automatic) attitudes are involved in smoking behavior and support the view that direct and indirect measures tap different cognitive motivational systems.