Does Precipitation Affect Consumers’ Smoking Tendency?

Three studies are reported that investigate the impact of precipitation on consumers’ smoking tendency. A cross-country comparison on prevalence of adult smoking (Study 1a) indicated that a high precipitation level was associated with a high percentage of smokers at country level. A cross-state comparison within the U.S. (Study 1b) confirmed this relationship at state level. A follow-up survey of smokers confirmed this relationship again (Study 1c). Two additional experiments that manipulated imagined rainy weather conditions confirmed this relation further and also demonstrated that the effect of precipitation on smoking was mediated by negative mood, moderated by whether a person is a smoker or not (Study 2) and by hedonic versus utilitarian processing objectives (Study 3).

Citation:

Yinlong Zhang (2009) ,"Does Precipitation Affect Consumers’ Smoking Tendency?", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 644-644.