Tensions Between Health Beliefs and Desires: Implications for a Health Communication Campaign to Promote a Smoking-Cessation Program

This article examines associations between smokers' estimates of the likelihood of various outcomes of participation in a smoking-cessation program and ratings of outcome desirability. A survey of smokers reveals moderate, statistically significant positive associations between the probability and evaluation of desirable outcomes. Associations are negative and weak or nonsignificant for undesirable outcomes. The associations between expectation and evaluation also vary across smoking levels. Implications for a health communication campaign are discussed.