The influence of fear messages on the smoking behaviour of Cameroonian students

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to analyses the influence of fear messages on the smoking behavior of Cameroonian public university students. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses responses obtained from a critical incidents approach to interviews with a sample of 2100 Cameroonians students. Informants were asked to identify incidents which affected their perceptions of fear message in prevention campaign. To do this, we applied logistic regression and the chi-square test of independence to data collected from a questionnaire. Findings – The evaluation of determinants of smoking behavior which the informants named suggest that the smoking status of a student depends on his or her own characteristics. Furthermore, the repetition of fear messages has a positive influence on students’ behavior, as does the emission of strong fear messages. Research limitations/implications – This primarily original paper uses examples from Cameroonians students. Therefore, it is recommended to continue with studies in other socio professional categories, to identify all factor that can motive every smoker to stop or to reduce it firstly, and secondly, to identify the part or the type of message of fear that can convince non-smokers to maintain their status. Practical implications – In order to improve the level of influence of fear messages in our context, we suggest to the actors in charge of the implementation of prevention campaigns to accompany fear messages with recommendations for quitting smoking, to opt for the repetition of fear messages, and the emission of messages that arouse a strong fear. Originality/value – The need to analyses the influence of fear messages on the smoking behavior of Cameroonians students reflects a gap in extant literature on persuasive communication. In a context where fear is regularly used in prevention campaigns, this study appears firstly as an evaluation of what has already been done so far for the prevention of smoking and then as a guide to improve the campaigns future prevention through the use of fear.