The Role of Personality Features and Cognitive Avoidance Strategies in Cigarette Smoking Behavior

Health risk behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, may be triggered by failures in thought suppression, a cognitive avoidance strategy associated with rumination. To date, no study has examined the role of personality features in the performance of thought suppression in smokers and nonsmokers. To address this gap in the literature, we aimed to (1) examine whether some stable personality features might be related to thought suppression failure independent of smoking status and (2) investigate whether smokers have different personality traits compared with nonsmokers that might be related to cognitive avoidance strategies and difficulties in cognitive emotion regulation suggesting the presence of rumination/failures in suppressing mental content. We included 39 nonsmokers and 40 regular smokers in the study and implemented a multimethod psychological research design. Specifically, we administered a typical performance-based measure (i.e., Rorschach [R-PAS]) and a behavioral task (i.e., the thought suppression task). Our results indicate that failures in thought suppression are associated with stable aspects of personality related to the presence of thinking problems (e.g., Sum of Severe Cognitive Codes) and passive attitudes (e.g., Passive proportion). Moreover, failures in suppressing a mental content seem to be associated with difficulties in problem-solving strategies with a constant focus on one’s inner world.