The Imbalance of Wanting and Liking Contributes to a Bias of Internal Attention Towards Positive Consequences of Tobacco Smoking

Previous studies have shown that addiction is associated with an attentional bias towards external stimuli. However, it is currently unclear whether this bias extends to internal attention. The aim of the present study was to address this question within the Incentive Sensitization theory framework. To this end, structural equation models delineating the relationships between nicotine dependence, the imbalance of wanting and liking (WmL), personal relevance of smoking consequences, and antismoking intention were tested using online survey data of 826 tobacco users. Consistent with previous findings, WmL was disrupted with increasing nicotine dependence. The key finding was that a moderate positive correlation was observed between WmL and personal relevance of positive consequences, which suggests that dependence-related attentional bias might not only relate to the processing of external stimuli but also to what an individual considers important, which is linked to the distribution of internal attention. However, such attentional bias might not apply to all smokers to the same extent, based on the comparison of latent profiles of smokers. The findings indicate that the bias of internal attention may play a significant role in both the initiation of smoking cessation, as well as in the likelihood of relapse. This suggests that including a more diverse array of topics in health communication could be beneficial, given the varying emphasis on smoking consequences among different profiles.