"Study the psychology of the smoker in search of information that can increase corporate profits."
I've taken this as an occasion to...ask myself why are we doing the things we're doing.
...First, every undertaking has to have some mission. I would state our charter from Philip Morris in this fashion:
Study the psychology of the smoker in search of information that can increase corporate profits.
Our charter is unique in that we are given the smoker to study. Other R&D charters specify the cigarette in terms of component parts...We get the whole smoker to ourselves. But there isn't that much freedom, really, because the charter demands that the research have some promise for dollar payout...
...We've devoted considerable effort in the past to elucidating the benefits of smoking and would likely wish to continue in that direction. But there's diminished likelihood of payout on this front because of increased industry-wide legal concern over the counter-thrust of antismoking groups. It is feared that any pronouncement about smoking from the industry will provide an opportunity for attack. There is also understandable legal concern about any industry-endorsed reference to the pharmacological effects of smoke, however beneficial that effect might be. The risk is great that such reference might be used to advantage by those seeking to persuade the public that cigarette smoke contains a dependency-producing drug classifiable with the amphetamines and opiates...
...There is a general realm of psychological inquiry that would not make our lawyers nervous were the findings to be made public...This is the socio-psychological aspects of smoking...
...We continue to ask what it is that the smoker derives from smoking...
...There are some distinctive features about the cigarette market. We sell a product that is bought often and used from 10 to 60 times a day, day in, day out. We provide a product that is the essential commodity in a habitual act. It is inevitable therefore that we focus upon habit-formation and habit maintenance...The model is known within psychology as the Skinnerian operant conditioning model.
You are all familiar with Pavlov's dog. Present food, he salivates. Ring a bell each time you present food, and in due time you can ring the bell without the food and he will salivate. This is classical conditioning....
...Put a hungry rat in a cage. Put a lever in the cage. Make it so that a push on the lever delivers a pellet of good. In its random movements the rat will push the lever. He'll get one pellet. The rat will soon associate lever-pushing with the food pellet. In time he will be rapidly pushing the lever for food....The food pellet is the reward for the stimulus...
...Consider the smoker. Smoking the cigarette is the lever press. The effect of that smoking act upon his person is the reward. The effect reinforces the smoking act. He comes to push the lever 10 to 60 times per day. Our task is to understand the reinforcing mechanism, or process, whereby the habit is established and maintained.
...Now consider the many effects upon the person of the smoker...psychosocial symbolism is imparted to the person and a large number of chemical compounds pass rapidly into the bloodstream. Which of these events...are essential for reinforcing the act?
...The questions which give substance to our research effort can now be ground out...
What is the lower delivery level [of nicotine] beyond which the smoking act is not reinforced?...
...Given a fixed quantity of nicotine in tobacco, what factors in cigarette design determine its availability to the smoker?
...Does the smoker seek spike effects, or bloodstream constancy?
...How important is the form of the delivered nicotine? (Salt vs. free base? pH? Particle size?)
...Is the industry placing itself at risk by lowering delivery levels?
...What are the fundamental differences between the habit of tobacco smoking and heroin injection?
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