49, SE = 0.84; male mean = 1.53, SE = 0.63). Furthermore, there were no significant main or interactive effects of gender or mood condition on cravings to smoke. Figure 2. Latency to smoke by mood condition and gender. *p table 1 < .05. Discussion The purpose of this laboratory study was to investigate the role of gender in smoking behavior subsequent to the implicit induction of negative affect. Compared with males, female smokers began smoking more quickly following the negative mood induction. Previous research has shown that women are more likely to report smoking to reduce negative affect (Cepeda-Benito & Reig-Ferrer, 2000; Rundmo et al., 1997) and the belief that smoking will reduce negative affect (Brandon & Baker, 1991).

The current study suggests that the stronger relationship for women between negative affect relief and smoking occurs in response to subtle increases in negative affect. No effects of gender were found for the number of cigarettes smoked following the negative mood induction. This result may have been related to the fixed duration of the ad libitum smoking period. It is also possible that women respond to negative affect by increasing the intensity of their smoking rather than the amount of smoking. Additional research, including studies of smoking topography, is needed to further understand how men and women differ in their smoking-related response to negative affect. There were no differences following the manipulation in cravings to smoke by condition or gender.

As we were interested in the maintenance of smoking behavior, participants were only deprived of smoking for 1 hr, and we did not expect to see large increases in cravings to smoke during that time. A number of limitations should be noted. First, adults in the sample were primarily Caucasian, young, and smoked a little less than a pack of cigarettes per day. Findings AV-951 may not generalize to other groups of smokers. Second, all female participants were premenopausal and in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle. Differences in affect-related smoking by menstrual cycle phase or menopause status could not be examined. Third, laboratory studies have the potential for context and demand effects; however, the setting also provides the opportunity to study behavior that would be extremely difficult to examine outside of a controlled environment. Additional strengths of the study include the use of a subtle mood induction, standardization of the time since last cigarette, and the stratification by gender to conditions. In conclusion, this study highlighted gender differences in mood-related maintenance of smoking behavior.