Models of Smoking Addictions

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Strotz in 1956 once developed a practical experiment with an individual to show the way imperfectly rational addiction works. By doing this he got a model to maximize the future consumption of smoking cigarettes then later in his life chooses that the desire to maintain the addiction and means of the consumption of smoking are verified. The model tended to show regret of the smoking addiction in the long run. This is where Schelling created his statement that related to the same economic experiment that Strotz presented.

Myopic Addiction

Myopic addiction is when people are aware of the harmful effects of the addiction yet still decide to maintain the addiction of consuming cigarettes. With this generation of our youth, young teenagers feel the need to smoke socially although they are educated on the risks that come with the addiction. With the peer pressure of social events and the mind of teenagers thinking that it makes the person look “cool”. In the end, one cigarette could lead to the addiction. Although, when it comes to the price of cigarettes increasing it will reduce the consumption of current smoking habits of the individual as it is not a priority like it is with someone with a rational addiction.

Someone with a myopic addiction tends to not consider the future risks that it will have on them when consuming cigarettes at the current point in time. The person would regret the decision the same way that someone would if they had an imperfect rational addiction.

The younger generation may not be aware of the future affects due to the older generation not making them open there eyes to the addiction and how dangerous it could be on their future. For example, a mother with a smoking addiction may influence her son/daughter to smoking due to them seeing their parent doing it making them think it is okay to do it and not being aware on what the actual side effects could consist of.

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Conclusion

To conclude, although there is an increase in consumers that smoke cigarettes there are also people that can decide whether smoking is a priority in their current life, previous life and future life. The future generation are the ones that we need to consider due to them having to go through one of these three addiction models. The future generation will have to consider an economic trade off, of whether they want clean lungs or they want to be a lover of tobacco. Therefore, it is up to us as the older generation too educate the youth on the risks of smoking.

Reference

- fjc.people.uic.edu, Frank J. Chaloupka, John Tauras, Michael Grossman, ‘Insights from Psychology’

- sites.duke.edu, Gary Becker, Kevin Murphy, ‘A Theory of Rational Addiction’

- blackboard.central.wa.edu.au, Smoking Research – Case Study Material

- wiso.uni-hamburg.de, Gary Becker, Kevin Murphy, ‘A Theory of Rational Addiction’

- www.cdc.gov, ‘Smoking and Youth’