Chapter 9 
or overestimates (6 percent in both of the latter two categories). When 
probed responses were included in the analysis, there was a substantial 
increase in responses that underestimated tar levels (from 9 to 20 percent); 
there were only small changes in correct answers or overestimates. When 
actual tar numbers were regressed against respondents' initial and probed 
answers, the relationships were weak (r = .26 and .20, respectively). 
Smokers of very-low-tar cigarettes had a much greater awareness of their 
cigarettes' tar numbers. Thirty-nine percent of those who smoked 1- to 5-mg 
tar cigarettes were correct initially, increasing to 50 percent with probing. 
These figures stand in marked contrast to responses of smokers of cigarettes 
with 6 to 10 mg tar, whose comparable percentages of correct responses were 
4 and 9 percent, respectively. 
To assess "knowledge in practice" (in addition to recall-based knowledge), 
half the members of the sample were asked whether a 16-mg (or, for the other 
half, a 5-mg) tar cigarette is lower in tar than most other cigarettes on the 
market. The correct answers are "no" for the 16-mg tar cigarette and "yes" 
for the 5-mg tar cigarette. Table 2 shows respondents' answers cross-tabulated 
by the tar level of their most recently smoked cigarette. Whereas 35 percent 
of the smokers of 1- to 5-mg tar cigarettes did not know that a 16-mg tar 
cigarette was not lower in tar, between 55 and 66 percent of all other smokers 
either did not know or gave incorrect responses to this question. For those 
Table 2 
Interpretation of Federal Trade Commission tar numbers corresponding to lower tar levels 
Tar Levels (mg) 
Interpretations 
Very Low 
1-5 
Low 
6-10 
Medium 
11-15 
High 
16+ 
Cannot 
Determine 
Believe That a 1 6-mg Tar 
Cigarette Is Lower in Tar 
Than Most Other Cigarettes 
(N = 179) 
% Correct 
(14) 
65 
(36) 
45 
(40) 
44 
(64) 
34 
(25) 
32 
% Incorrect 
0 
10 
10 
16 
12 
% Do not know 
35 
45 
46 
50 
56 
Believe That a 5-mg Tar 
Cigarette Is Lower in Tar 
Than Most Other Cigarettes 
(N = 158) 
% Correct 
(14) 
15 
(39) 
34 
(30) 
44 
(52) 
27 
(23) 
25 
% Incorrect 
13 
10 
14 
19 
16 
% Do not know 
73 
56 
42 
55 
59 
i 
I 
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