Perceptions of the health risks associated with smoking in comparison with not smoking were assessed for the self and the "typical smoker" among four groups of adults: current, former and nonsmokers in the community, and smokers who had joined cessation clinics to help them quit. Comparisons across groups indicated that risk perceptions differed as a function of smoking status. Clinic attendees reported the highest smoking risk and the greatest perceived benefit of not smoking, and community smokers reported the lowest of each. In addition, community smokers were the only group to exhibit an "optimistic bias" (i.e., a perception that they were less vulnerable to health risk than was the typical smoker). Results from this cross-sectional study suggest that the decision to engage in and to stop risky behaviors is related to the perceptions of the health risk associated with those behaviors.

It has been assumed that engaging in downward social comparison can improve subjective well-being both by ameliorating negative mood and by improving self-concept. Although a number of studies have demonstrated the effect of downward comparison on mood, there has been little empirical evidence of its effect on self-concept. The results of the current study indicate that downward comparison can increase self-esteem and does so especially for persons with relative low self-esteem. The results also suggest that upward comparison opportunities have different effects on the attitudes of high- and low-self-esteem persons.

It has been well documented that people with negative emotional reactions to sex (e.g., “erotophobia,”“sex guilt”) have less knowledge about contraception than do people with more positive reactions. Recent research has suggested that this deficit is not related to an inability to learn the information, but is due at least in part to the fact that erotophobics actively avoid contraceptive information. The current study was designed to examine the role of erotophobia and high self‐esteem in resistance to learning sexual information. More specifically it compared pretest and posttest knowledge of contraception and AIDS in high self‐esteem and low self‐esteem, erotophobia, and erotophilic women in a university class on human reproduction. As expected, high self‐esteem erotophobic subjects were less Likely than other subjects to retain contraceptive and AIDS information presented in the class. Implications of this study for contraceptive and AIDS educational strategies are discussed.

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Social and behavioral scientists have been challenged to discover factors that contribute to hazardous conditions on the farm. In the current study, the relationships between personal and significant others' attitudes concerning safety, perceptions of behavioral control, stress, habit or repetitive farming practice, and frequency of engaging in safety precautions were investigated. One hundred ninety-nine male and female farmers completed study questionnaires prior to participating in stress reduction workshops held throughout Eastern Washington during 1994-95. Results indicated that safety behaviors were influenced by different variables for respondents who had a prior history of minor injuries on the farm than for those individuals who had experienced major injuries. Methodological concerns and recommendations for future research and intervention strategies are discussed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworth.com]