Apr 30, 2014 09:39 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Showing anger instead of sadness in anti-smoking commercials is more effective, a new research by Dartmouth and Cornell University shows.

For the study, the researchers analyzed the way viewers saw negative emotions in advertisements that portrayed side effects of smoking.

The research team made anti-smoking TV commercials that showed an actor conveying anti-tobacco messages to 115 college students. One set of smoking commercials was related to anger and the other showed sadness. This was done using different vocal tones and facial expressions. Researchers manipulated the actor's expressed emotions. However, the storyline of the advert was kept the same.

The study findings showed that ads in which the actor portrayed anger were more effective because speakers were seen as more powerful and dominant by the viewers. This effect increased the anti-smoking attitudes and predicted strong intentions to stay away from tobacco.

While participants who watched the smoking commercials that depicted sadnes were less likely to like or sympathize with the actor. Researchers said those factors were irrelevant when it came to avoiding tobacco.

Past studies have suggested that emotional expression is vital when it comes to persuasion, and that people's perceptions of emotions affect their attitudes and behaviors.

Statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that cigarette smoking accounts to over 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. This is about one in five deaths. What is more, over 10 times as many Americans had premature death due to smoking compared to the deaths in all the wars fought by the U.S. during its history.

The findings of the current study are published in the 'Journal of Health Communication.'

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