Smokers’ expectation that smoking will help improve mood or help them feel better is well established (e.g., Gilbert, Sharpe, Ramanaiah, Detwiler, & Anderson, 2000). At issue is whether these beliefs are justified by empirical evidence. Although the craving and negative mood reductions found here offer support for these beliefs, a number of other studies call these beliefs into question (see Kassel et al., 2003, for review). In the present study, smokers confirmed their belief in the ability of smoking to help regulate mood by having significantly higher expectations immediately before smoking and at random assessments. Somewhat telling are the significantly lower expectations immediately after smoking. On one hand, had smoking done its mood improvement job, one would expect smokers to confirm it with the highest expectancy ratings immediately after smoking. On the other hand, this may be related to the nature of the question: “Smoking will improve my mood or make me feel better” (italics added). At this point, having just smoked a cigarette, the smokers may express the belief that further smoking at that time would not help.
