Effects Of Valence Emotions On Smokers’inhibitory Control

Reducing the smoking behaviors of smokers is an effective way to achieve the tobacco control goal of “Healthy China 2030”.Inhibitory control plays an important role in the occurrence,development,withdrawal of smoking addiction.Emotion is one of the important factors that influence inhibitory control in smokers.First,there has been controversy regarding the effects of different valences of emotions on inhibitory control in smokers.Some researchers have believe that positive and negative emotions can weaken inhibitory control in smokers,while others believe that positive emotions improve inhibitory control in smokers.Second,social emotions may be more emotional saliences.Compared to emotions evoked by general cues,smokers’ inhibitory control may be affected differently when faced with social emotions evoked by social cues.Finally,the effect of social emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control may be influenced by interpersonal closeness.In summary,the present study was designed with three sub-studies to examine valence emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control,the effects of social emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control,and the effects of social emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control at different interpersonal closeness.Study 1 used the Go/Nogo task to explore the effect of valence emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control.60 participants(30 smokers and 30 non-smokers)were participated into study 1.The present study measured subjects’ performance of inhibitory control in positive,negative,and neutral emotion conditions.The results showed that(1)Smokers performed worse than non-smokers in inhibitory control under different emotion conditions;(2)Compared to neutral emotion,smokers performed better in inhibitory control under positive emotion conditions and worse in inhibitory control under negative emotion conditions.Study 2 used the Go/Nogo task to explore the effects of social emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control.31 participants(all smokers)were participated into Study 2.The present study measured subjects’ performance of inhibitory control in positive social connection,negative social connection,and neutral social connection conditions.The results showed that(1)Compared to the neutral social connection condition,smokers’ inhibitory control performance was significantly worse in the negative social connection condition;(2)Compared to the neutral social connection condition,smokers’ inhibitory control performance was significantly worse in the positive social connection condition,and(3)Compared to the negative social connection condition,smokers’ inhibitory control performance was not significant in the positive social bonding condition condition.Study 3 used the Go/Nogo task to explore the effect of social emotions on smokers’ inhibitory control at interpersonal closeness.56 participants(all smokers)were participated into study 3.In this study,interpersonal closeness(high/low)was the between-subject variable and social emotion(positive social connection/negative socialconnection/neutral social connection)was the within-subjects variable.The results showed that(1)Smokers performed better on inhibitory control in the family condition than in the stranger condition under different social connection condition;(2)Compared to neutral social connection condition,smokers performed worse on inhibitory control in both the family and stranger conditions in the negative social connection condition;(3)the interaction between interpersonal closeness type and social emotion type was significant,with the family condition smokers showed poorer inhibitory control in the positive social connection condition than in the neutral social connection condition;in the stranger condition,smokers showed better inhibitory control in the positive social connection condition than in the neutral social connection condition.The main conclusions from this study are as follows:(1)Compared to neutral emotions,smokers showed better inhibitory control in positive emotions and worse inhibitory control in negative emotions.(2)Compared to neutral social emotions,smokers showed worse inhibitory control in both positive and negative social emotions.(3)In high interpersonal closeness conditions,smokers showed worse inhibitory control in both positive and negative social emotions compared to neutral social emotions;in low interpersonal closeness conditions,smokers showed better inhibitory control in positive social emotions and worse inhibitory control in negative social emotions compared to neutral social emotions.