딥페이크란 인공지능 기술에 의해 합성된 이미지, 비디오, 오디오 등의 미디어로서 실제 존재하지 않거나 발생하지 않은 사건 등을 묘사한 것을 뜻하며, 창의적인 콘텐츠 문화를 만들어 낼 수 있다는 긍정적인 측면과 함 께, 여론조작을 통한 민주주의에 대한 위협, 범죄에의 활용 등 여러 사회적 위험성 또한 내포하고 있다. 이 글에서는 딥페이크 기술의 악의적 활용의 위험성에 기초하여 딥페이크 기술 이용에 대한 규제방안을 검토함으로써, 우리 사회에서 이 인공지능 기술을 안전하게 이용할 수 있는 방법을 모색 해 본다. 이를 위하여 딥페이크 기술을 악용하는 행위의 위험에 대하여 살 펴보고, 이에 관련된 국내외 입법동향 및 딥페이크 기술 일반에 관련된 전 반적인 대응 방향성을 검토하였다. 딥페이크의 일반 규제를 위해서는 딥페이크에 대한 규제내용을 담은 기 본법이 필요하며, 딥페이크의 특징인 허위성, 미디어의 파급력, 디지털 형 식의 빠른 유포를 고려한 고려한 규제방식이 필요하다. 이를 위하여 딥페이 크 생성물에 대한 표시강제제도 도입, 악의적 딥페이크의 유통 금지, 그 외 온라인 서비스 제공자의 의무로서 사전 모니터링 및 자율규제, 피해자 지원 을 위한 신속 삭제 등이 요구된다. 이에 대한 입법 및 개발자와 온라인 플 랫폼 업체의 적극적인 대응이 동시에 요구되고 있다.
본 연구는 최근의 형사정책적 흐름에 따라 보호관찰관이 담당해야 하는 범죄자 관 리감독 업무가 확대되는 상황에서, 보호관찰관들이 직무수행 중에 겪을 수 있는 여러 가지 사고와 폭력피해의 규모와 양태를 알아내고 그러한 부정적인 경험이 보호관찰관 의 직무스트레스, 나아가 직무만족도에 미치는 영향을 분석하고자 하는 목적으로 수 행되었다. 전국의 18개 보호관찰소에서 346명의 보호관찰관을 대상으로 설문조사를 통해 먼 저 직무수행 중 경험할 수 있는 여러 가지 위험과 폭력피해의 규모를 측정하였다. 보 호관찰관이 직무수행 중 가장 빈번히 경험하는 사건은 대상자의 재범(93.4%)이었고, 그 다음이 대상자나 그 가족으로 부터의 욕설과 반말 등 언어적 폭력을 당한 경험 (71%)이었다. 이어서 대상자나 가족으로 부터 협박을 받는 등 정서적 폭력의 경험 (65%)이었고, 대상자의 자살이나 자해를 목격한 비율은 28%가 넘었다. 신체적 폭행을 경험한 비율은 9.4%로 높지 않았다. 개방형 질문을 통해 살펴 본 바 비율이 상대적 으로 높지는 않지만 대상자의 자살과 자해를 목격하는 경험과 신체적 폭력을 당한 경 험은 상당한 트라우마와 불안감을 낳는다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 그리고 이러한 직무수행 중의 위험한 경험이 직무스트레스와 직무만족도에 미치는 영향에 대해 회귀분석을 한 결과 직무수행중의 위험한 경험은 직무스트레스에 부정적 인 영향을 주어 직무만족도를 낮추는 것으로 분석되었다. 이러한 관계는 직무수행 중 에 경험하는 위험 중에서 폭력적인 것을 따로 분리하여 분석하여도 마찬가지 결과를 낳았다. 보호관찰관이 직무수행 중에 경험하는 다양한 위험과 폭력피해가 직무스트레 스를 통해 직무만족도에 영향을 주는 것을 해결하기 위해서는 먼저 직무수행 중의 위 험에 대해 해당 부처가 관심을 가지고 통계적인 규모를 정기적으로 파악하는 것부터 시작해야 한다는 것을 강조하였다.
This study would analyze a survey conducted with 609 workers to use the results as materials for the settlement of safety culture for the characteristics of the establishment by assessing the status of the workers’ exposure to harmful risks and the impact on safety culture to present the following conclusions. This study has significance in that it found that exposure to harmful/dangerous factors in the establishment and the workers’ experiences of occupational accidents affect their perception of safety culture and that in particular, ‘worker safety priority’ of the safety cultural factors was an important factor, and it is judged that continuous studies are necessary so that the perceptions of safety culture will spread in the establishment.
The decommissioning of the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is a long-term project of more than 15 years and will be carried out as a project, which will require project management skills accordingly. The risk of decommissioning project is a combination of many factors such as the decommissioning plan, the matters licensed by the regulatory agency, the design and implementation of dismantling, the dismantling plan and organization, and stakeholders. There will be some difficulties in risk management because key assumptions about many factors and the contents of major risks should be well considered. Risk management typically performs a series of processes ranging from identification and analysis to evaluation. In order to analyze and evaluate risks here, identification of potential risks is the first step, and in order to reasonably select potential risks, various factors mentioned should be considered. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify possible risks that should be considered for the decommissioning project in various aspects. The risk of the decommissioning project can be defined using the hazard keyword, and the risk family presented in the IAEA safety series can also be referred. It would be better to approach the radiological or non-radiological risks that may occur in the dismantling work with the hazard keyword, and if the characteristics of the decommissioning project are reflected, it would be a good idea to approach it on a risk family basis. There are 10 top risks in the risk family, 25 risks at the level 2 and 61 risks at the level 3 are presented. It may be complex to consider these hazards and risks recommended as risk families at the same time, so using the results of safety evaluation as input data for risk identification can be a reasonable approach. Therefore, this study intended to derive the possible risks of the decommissioning project based on the risk family structure. At this point, the reflection of the safety assessment results was intended to be materialized by considering the hazards checklist. As a result, this study defined and example of 38 possible risks for the decommissioning project, considering the 10 top risk family and lower level risk categories. This result is not finalized, and it will be necessary to further strengthened through expert workshops or HAZOP in the future.
An induction melting facility includes several work health and safety risks. To manage the work health and safety risks, care must be taken to identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to risks to health and safety, to eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, attention have to be given to minimize those risks so far as is reasonably practicable by implementing risk control measures according to the hierarchy of control in regulation, to ensure the control measure is, and is maintained so that it remains, effective, and to review and as necessary revise control measures implemented to maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a work environment that is without risks to health or safety. The way to manage the risks associated with induction melting works is to identify hazards and find out what could cause harm from melting works, to assess risks if necessary – understand the nature of the harm that could be caused by the hazard, how serious the harm could be and the likelihood of it happening, to control risks – implement the most effective control measures that are reasonably practicable in the circumstances, and to review control measures to ensure they are working as planned.
항해사 교육과정 중에서 가장 많은 시간을 차지하는 충돌 예방에 관한 교육은 실습생에게 중요한 교육 및 실습 과정 중 하나이 다. 본 연구의 목적은 실습생의 체계적이고 정량화된 충돌 예방 실습 교육과정 개발을 위해 실습생의 충돌위험도 인식을 조사하는 것이 다. 이를 위해 선행연구에서 충돌위험을 판단하는 요소를 도출하고 실습생 대상 설문조사로 실습생 관점의 충돌위험도를 시나리오별로 도출하였다. 그리고 PARK Model을 이용하여 현직 항해사가 느끼는 충돌위험도와 비교하였다. 분석 결과 실습생 및 현직 항해사는 충돌위 험요소 중 타선과의 거리를 가장 중요하게 생각하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 시나리오별 위험도 경향은 유사했으나 실습생의 평균 위험도 (5.39)가 현직 항해사의 평균 위험도(5.20)보다 더 높은 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 특정 상황에서는 현직 항해사보다 실습생이 더 낮은 위험 도를 체감하였고 이는 실습생의 항해 경험 부족으로 인한 결과로 판단된다. 해당 연구는 실습생의 충돌 위험도 및 현직 항해사의 위험도 차이를 정량적으로 제시하여 충돌 예방 실습 교육 개발의 기초자료로 사용될 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.
The role of container shipping is proven to be crucial for in moving goods across oceans and seas to satisfy human demand around the world. Recently, the emergence of unexpected events such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the blockage of the Suez Canal has brought a variety of challenges to global economic activities, and container shipping is no exception. Therefore, this paper aims to discover the difficulties faced by shippers when sea transport is chosen as a method to deliver their containers in the new context. The study is conducted in the north of Vietnam and involves interviewing specialists and experienced export managers to identify the possible risks associated with container shipping. Then, a survey is conducted among those in the shipping industry, including manufacturers, freight forwarders, and trading companies, among others. Answers are ranked on a Likert scale and a probability and impact matrix is applied, facilitating the evaluation of container shipping risks. As a result, this study is expected to bring a deeper understanding of the risks faced by shippers when they export their containers, with possible solutions also presented. Meanwhile, shipping service providers are aware of their customers’ experiences and for this reason can improve their service quality or develop new services to enhance customer satisfaction.
국제항해에 종사하는 모든 선박은 황 함유량 0.5% m/m 이하의 선박연료유를 사용해야만 한다. 따라서 글로벌 해운기업들은 이러한 규제조치에 대응하기 위하여 저유황유의 사용, 혼합유의 사용, 탈황설비(scrubber)의 신규 설치, LNG 연료 전환 등과 같은 다양한 옵션을 해당 회사의 재무사정, 신조발주계획, 중장 기 항로배치, 글로벌 얼라이언스(alliance) 정책 등을 종합적으로 고려하여 신조 발주를 선택하고 있다. 왜냐하면 선박용 LNG 연료는 기존의 고유황유를 대체 하면서 해양환경을 보호할 수 있는 궁극의 수단은 아니지만 현실 가능한 대체 수단으로 평가되고 있기 때문이다. 국내외 조선·해운산업계는 친환경연료추진 선박, 예컨대 암모니아 또는 수소, 연료전지 등과 같이 탄소중립형선박을 건조하여 운항하는 것이 최종목표이지만, 제반 환경을 고려하였을 때 중간단계로서 반드시 LNG 연료추진선박을 고려하지 않을 수 없다. 따라서 이 연구는 향후 상업적인 관점에서 조선소에서 대두될 LNG 연료추진선박에 대한 LNG 연료공 급과 관련된 선박건조보험상의 주요 쟁점들을 법적으로 검토하고, 개선방안을 도출하여 향후 선박용 LNG 연료공급사업의 활성화에 필요한 기초자료를 제공 하였다.
The current study uses risk theory to explore factors mitigating consumers’ intention to use SSTs. The findings of an empricial study reveal that the perceived time, security and addiction risk indirectly reduce consumers’ intention to use SSTs through the per-ceived psychological risk. Most importantly, this study’s findings show that an increas-ing autonomy of SSTs strengthens the effects of perceived addiction risk.
The purpose of this study was to create a theoretical structure for the concept of purchasing risks by identifying the structure of purchasing risks that lead to obstacles in the purchasing decisions of consumers in fashion consumption via online channels. This was a secondary research using books, articles, prior researches, and academic journals on the five topics of “characteristics of fashion consumption,” “the concept of purchasing risks,” “purchasing risks by product types,” “purchasing risks by channel types,” and “purchasing risks of fashion consumption on online shopping channels.” According to the arguments of prior researches, the study divided the purchasing risks of fashion consumption through online shopping into four categories : (1) fundamental purchasing risks including financial risk and time loss risk pertaining to any product or channel, (2) online channel purchase risks, which include risks in payment, Information leaks, and delivery and return/exchange risk, (3) fashion product risk related to product quality or experience of other people, which includes social risks and risks associated with quality, and (4) the online channel×fashion product risks, which include the aesthetic and psychological hazards especially amplified in online channels. The four risk factors were then described with a concept map to systemize the multidimensional and stereoscopic psychological structure of purchasing risks. Of the four risk factors, consumers placed the most emphasis on the online channel×fashion product risks, hence, reducing this risk factor is of utmost priority for marketing of online shopping channels.
본 연구는 계약법 상 부동산거래행위에 있어 사실상 동시이행을 실행할수 없는 점과 등기법상 등기의 공신력이 부재한 법규상의 미비점을 개선하여 부동산거래위험을 방지하기 위한 연구이다. 이러한 거래위험을 방지하기 위한 수단으로 선진국에서 부동산 거래 안전사고를 대비하여 활용하고 있는 부동산에스크로제도를 우리나라 실정법에 맞게 도입하여 거래상의 동시이행과 등기의 공신력을 실현하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 에스크로서비스실시를 위한 법률개정에 대하여 대안을 제시하였다. 본 연구결과를 통해 에스크로서비스를 도입할 경우, 첫째 국가는 미비한 법률로 인하여 재산상의 피해가 가지 않도록 제도와 법률을 구비하여 국민들의 재산권을 보장하는 공익보호에 기여할 수 있다. 둘째, 민법상 강제사항이 없는 거래에 있어 동시이행를 확보할 수 있다. 셋째, 현행 등기의 공신력이 없는 제도를 보완 등기의 공신력을 제고 할 수 있다. 넷째, 부동산거래제도의 불투명한 거래제도를 개선하여 부동산중개활동 과정상 제기될 수 있는 제반 문제를 해결할 수 있다.
21세기의 현대미술은 다학제적(多學際的)으로 수입된 신조어들과 유동적이며 불안하게 흔들리고 있다. 본 논문은 2010년대를 중심으로 현대미술계에서 뜨거운 관심을 받아온 ‘포스트인 터넷아트’와 ‘사변적 실재론’의 등장 배경과 소비된 양상을 살펴본다. 인터넷을 중심으로 디지털 기술 환경에 대한 현대미술비평의 관심과 함께 등장한 포스트인터넷아트는 남용 및 정의의 혼선의 과정과 함께하면서 명확한 의미 없이 동시대 문화 속에서 점유하는 가치와 평판을 획득해갔 다. 또한 철학과 인문사회과학에서 발단하여 미술계로 빠르게 전이된 사변적 실재론은, 현대미술과의 이론적 관계를 해결하지 못한 상황에서 종종 포스트인터넷아트와 결합하여 남용되는 양상을 보였다. 포스트인터넷과 사변적 실재론은 동시대의 현대미술이 당면한 중대하고 시급한 담론과 밀접히 관련하고 있으나, 불안정성의 사회 속 현대미술계에서는 유행 신조어들을 향한 성급하고 불순한 충동이 공존하고 있음을 밝힌다.
This research aims to shed a light on the benefits and perceived risks to the willingness to use perceived by consumers, centering on design-customizing service catering to individuals’ tastes and needs, and to study their impacts on the use of a design-customizing service. The validation of how benefits and perceived risks affect the intention to use showed that only aesthetic and self-expressive benefits had significant impacts on the willingness to use. However, only time/economic loss and self-design risks had negative impacts on the willingness to use a service. By gender, there was no difference in benefits and perceived risks to willingness to use for the benefit factors, whereas in terms of perceived risks to willingness to use factors. By age, there were also differences in the effects of benefits and perceived risks to purchase on the willingness to use a rash guard customizing service. There were variations in the perceived risks to the willingness to use and benefits depending on age. In particular, it was found that there were no perceived risks to the willingness to use for the age group of 10s. As design-customizing services based on individual tastes have drawn more attention recently, this research on the benefits and perceived risks to purchasing a rash guard design customizing service, as well as their effects on service use (particularly backed up by comparative analysis by gender and age), is expected to provide insights into design-customizing service strategy development.
As social media penetrates more deeply into people’s everyday lives, social commerce (a type of commerce that combines SNS features and possibility for commercial transactions) has enjoyed unprecedented growth. Shopping on Facebook is a representative example of social commerce platform that allows consumers to interact with other users, exchange information and purchase products without leaving a Facebook page. Social commerce presents great opportunities for marketers in terms of leveraging social aspects of shopping experience. It also offers a large potential for Korean companies to reach various target markets, as well as establish their presence abroad. Yet, acceptance of social commerce as a legitimate shopping channel has been slow, and consumers are still hesitant to shop via Facebook. This study draws on uses and gratification theory and the concept of perceived risk to examine how different motives for SNS use and the associated types of perceived risks can affect the purchase intention on the platform. Empirical data from 288 young users of Facebook were analyzed. Findings identified two main motives for SNS use: information-related motive and communication-related motive. Information-related motive significantly affected the intention to shop on Facebook, whereas communication- related motive did not have any significant influence. Risks associated with shopping via Facebook included delivery risk, security risk, social risk and economic risk. Overall, consumers perceived a higher level of security and social risk associated with shopping on Facebook. However, only social risk had a significant negative influence on the purchase intention. Awareness and previous experience of buying via social commerce platform positively affected consumers’ purchase intention.
Introduction
There is ample evidence in the medical research literature to show that the harmful effects of smoking are real. As a result, most governmental agencies around the world attempt to discourage smoking among smokers and nonsmokers alike by requiring cigarette companies to print health-warning messages on their product packages as a means to deter smoking. Little, however, is known about the credibility of these cigarette-warning messages perceived by both smokers and non-smokers alike on the effectiveness of these messages. Other studies have also examined socio-psychological factors other than health warning messages such as peer pressure, bad breadth, et al., (Pechmann, et al, 2003) which can also influence consumer desires whether or not to smoke. No study to our knowledge has incorporated this factor other than just health warning messages in the same model to study this phenomenon. Furthermore, most research on this topic has focused on consumers in western industrialized countries, even though the issues related to smoking can be just as severe in developing countries and warrants more research attention. In this research, we propose to study the credibility of cigarette warning messages on the effectiveness of these messages on deterring smoking behavior and the mediating effects of the perceived health and social risks in an integrated structural equation model (SEM) framework in an emerging country- Turkey. The study should provide insights into how these factors may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently and enable public policy makers to institute programs or strategies targeting the two different segments of consumers.
Literature Background and Hypotheses
Copious research has reported on the efficacy of Health Warning Message (HWM) in the Health Communications and Marketing literature (for reviews see Hammond, 2011; Noar, et al, 2015; 2016). In the USA, current rules only require health warnings be printed with tiny fonts on cigarette packages. The effectiveness of this format to deter smoking has come into serious questions. Other countries including countries in the EU have long required pictorial depiction of health hazards resulting from smoking be printed on cigarette packages that must occupy a substantial portion (50% or more) of the surface area on the cigarette package. The assumption is that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. However, the results are equivocal at best (Sabbane, et al., 2009). The real impact of HWM continues to be a point for debate as there are other tobacco consumption reduction methods such as increased taxes and smoking bans (Ruiter & Kok, 2005) various governments can and have imposed. Previous research has shown that when consumers believe that smoking behavior leads to unhealthy consequences and is unwise and unattractive, they generally would refrain from engaging in this behavior (Azjen & Fishbein, 1980). However, consumers who think that they are invincible and that these health hazards will never affect them but only other people, may have engaged in the process of rationalization and may actually discount the credibility of these claims. If so, the HWM may become less effective (Kees, et al., 2006). We therefore formulate the following hypothesis:
H1: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases the effectiveness of HWMs.
On the other hand, the extent to which consumers may perceive that cigarette HWMs to be credible can better persuade them about the health and social risks such as yellow teeth, bad breath, bad smell, et al., leading to social rejection associated with smoking (Pechmann, et al., 2003). Hammond’s review article (2011) provided some evidence that size and the presentation format can enhance the believability of HWMs. We should expect then that a greater perceived credibility will lead to better persuasion. Similarly, Kowitt, et al. (2016) also show in their study that the believability of HWMs vary among the adolescents regarding cigar smoking. Again, the assumption is that if they perceive the messages to be more credible, they will be more effective in persuading them about the harmful effects of smoking. We thus formulate the following two hypotheses:
H2: Perceived credibility of HWMs increases negative social risk perception of smoking
H3: Perceived credibility of HWMs increase negative health risk perception of smoking
Past research has revealed that knowledge about the negative consequences of a behavior can lead to behavior change even though this may be contingent upon how difficult it is to quit a behavior such as smoking (Nourjah, et al., 1994). Consumer behavior literature has confirmed that due to various factors, attitude may not correlate with behavior even in the context of smoking (Ruiter &Kok, 2005; Solomon, 2018). Extant literature suggests that HWMs may be more successful in influencing attitude (Cameron & Williams, 2015). This research focuses on the health risk perception’s potential impact on intention to quit smoking rather than the act of actually quitting smoking. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, other factors such as smoking ban and price increases, et al. may cause smoking behavior change. Hence we present the following hypothesis:
H4: Perceived health risks associated with smoking influence the effectiveness of HWMs.
Smoking has become less socially acceptable in western industrialized countries in recent years. Many nations and states have now banned smoking in public places such as colleges, restaurants and airports including second hand smokes. This creates a social stigma for many smokers. Smokers, as a result, has to bear greater social risks these days. This may also cause them to develop a negative attitude toward smoking as well as reducing their intention to smoke (Chuang & Huang, 2012). As Turkey is a country whose citizens care more about social acceptance, we postulate the following hypothesis:
H5: Perceived social risks of smoking affect the effectiveness of HWMs.
As mentioned earlier, the effectiveness of HWMs may vary according to subjects’ responses to such messages. They may discount the message veracity by a process of rationalization or even by the extent to which they may have been addicted to the habit. This is so particularly for smokers who may have engaged in such behavior for a long time. Hence, one should expect these messages to be more persuasive and thus more effective in dissuading non-smokers from starting the habit. Smokers, on the other hand, are likely to remain unconvinced and view these messages as exaggerations and therefore less affected by these messages (Hammond, 2009; Hahn & Renner, 1998; Pechmann & Knight, 2002). Based on this discussion, we postulate that the impacts of HWMs’ credibility on perceived health and social risks, as well as the messages’ effectiveness will vary depending on the smoking status of the subjects. We expect greater impacts for non-smokers. Therefore, we tested the SEM for smokers and the same model for nonsmokers in this study. The model is shown in Figure 1 in the Appendix. MethodologyWe designed a four parts questionnaire to measure the constructs in the model we used in this study. In the first part of the questionnaire, we first presented the 14 HWMs currently required by law in Turkey to be displayed on cigarette packages. Furthermore, each of these messages is to be rotated on the packages. We then used the semantic differential scale items comprising of five bipolar adjectives derived from previous literature (Beltramini, 1988; Renee & Cameron, 2015) to measure the perceived credibility of HWMs: (1) believable- unbelievable, (2) convincing- unconvincing, (3) reasonable- unreasonable, (4) easy to understand- hard to understand, (5) informativeuninformative. In the second part of the questionnaire, we operationalized the effectiveness construct by asking the respondents to indicate the extent to which they perceived these HWMs as effective on a 1 item semantic differential scale: “HWMs motivate me to quit or not quit smoking” for smokers and “HWMs reduce my curiosity and desire to try smoking” for nonsmokers. In the third part of the questionnaire, we measured health and social risks perceptions by using 4 statements. Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement/disagreement with each of the 5- point Likert scales culled from Kim (2006): Smoking makes me “contract various diseases and become addicted (health risks); Smoking makes me look “stupid, filthy (social risks). The last part of the questionnaire asked respondents about their smoking status and demographics including age, gender and the level of education. We collected the data by posting a copy of the questionnaire online on a website dedicated to discussing higher education issues in Turkey (www.akademikpersonel.org). We obtained an effective sample size of 432 after removing those with incomplete answers. Male and female respondents constituted 50 % of the sample each. The largest percentage of respondents was in the age group of 17 to 22 (35 %). Respondents (249) who have achieved the level of a college undergraduate degree or equivalent on education constituted 58 % of the sample. We conducted Chi-sqaure analyses to test significance of demographic differences between the two groups of smokers and nonsmokers. The results revealed no significant differences on age (χ2/3df=4.83; p=0.185), gender (χ2/1df=2.70; p=0.123) and the level of education (χ2/2df= 0.873; p= 0.646) between the smoking and nonsmoking subsamples. ResultsWe used WarpPLS 5.0 to conduct the structural model analyses as this analysis tool does not require the data set to be normally distributed (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We first tested the measurement scales with respect to their convergent and discriminant validities through standardized factor loadings. We conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). We eliminated two items on the credibility scale, which did not reach at least 0.5 on factor loadings for both subsamples. The two remaining items are “believable” and “convincing”. We then evaluated reliabilities of the scales for both subsamples, results for both subsamples showed that both credibility and health risk scales achieved Cronbach’s α scores higher than 0.7. Even though the Cronbach α score for the two items scale to measure social risk only reached a value of 0.6 for each of the subsample, this is considered adequate due to the smaller number of items used (Field, 2013). We assessed the assumptions of PLS-SEM. Variance inflation factors (VIFs) are well below the recommended 3.30. Hence, both vertical and lateral collinearity assumptions were met, thus deemed to be free from the common method bias (Kock & Lynn, 2012). We then evaluated convergent and discriminant validities of the latent construct. Discriminant validity was achieved as the square roots of AVE (average variance extracted) scores were higher than and correlation of the factor with another measure (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). For each subsample, composite reliabilities of all factors were higher than 0.8 and indicators’ loadings higher than 0.5 on the latent constructs. Thus, all scales used in the model achieved convergent validities for each subsample. We then proceeded to test the structural model for each of the subsamples. The results showed that for nonsmokers, the model explained 12% of total variance in the effectiveness of HWMs and for smokers 33%. All path coefficients were significant for nonsmokers except the health risks → HWMs effectiveness (β= 0.05, p= 0.23). Other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.154, p= 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.148, p= 0.014), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.285, p < 0.01) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.148, p < 0.014). For the smokers’ subsample, the path coefficient between the perceived health risks and effectiveness was also shown to be non-significant (β= 0.06, p= 0.19). All other path coefficients all showed significance as follows: perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived health risks (β= 0.197, p < 0.01), perceived credibility → perceived social risks (β= 0.247, p< 0.001), perceived credibility of HWMs → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.503, p < 0.001) and perceived social risk → perceived effectiveness (β= 0.213, p < 0.001). These results confirmed H1, H2, H3 and H5 but not H4 for both smokers and nonsmokers.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study reveals some useful insights about how HWMs on cigarette packages may influence smokers and nonsmokers differently in an emerging country- Turkey, which can be used by public policy makers to formulate effective anti-smoking campaigns to target the two groups. The effect sizes appeared to be greater for smokers than nonsmokers. This suggests that if these HWMs can be crafted to be perceived as more credible, the smokers can be more persuaded to quit smoking than for nonsmokers to start smoking. These results appear to be consistent across the board whether we are considering the direct effect or indirect effects through the mediating variables. This is perhaps somewhat consistent with what we would expect based on our earlier discussions. Smokers may be more resistant to HWMs due to the fact they are already engaged in such behavior and therefore more likely to discount the messages as well as the associated health and social risk perceptions. For nonsmokers, on the other hand, it may not take as much to convince them about the harmful effects of smoking and therefore greater perceived credibility of HWMs may be less critical in persuading them not to start smoking. It is important then when designing such HWMs to consider carefully whether these messages are perceived to be credible. Some of the US cigarette warning messages printed in tiny scripts are ambiguous such as smoking can be harmful to your health clearly can not be expected to be highly credible. Research has also shown that pictorial messages can be more persuasive. However, research has also shown that the results are far from being conclusive (Sabbane, et al., 2009). More research is warranted, especially in emerging countries. It is also interesting to note that social risks perceptions are more persuasive than health risks perceptions. Future communications strategies should place a greater emphasis on this factor and not just on health risks. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research Although our study is able to provide some useful insights into how perceived credibility of HWMs can influence the effectiveness in deterring smoking among nonsmokers and smokers alike either directly or indirectly through perceived health and social risks, we would like to point out several limitations of this study. First, we collected our data online using a web portal in Turkey that focuses on discussing higher education issues in general and therefore the respondents’ level of education is higher than the general population as well as the age group being younger. Future study should collect data from other age groups and education levels to produce results that are more generalizable. We conducted our study in one emerging country- Turkey. In future studies, more countries should be included. As the results revealed the prominence of social risks over health risks in influencing the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns, the issue about how to promote the social wellbeing of not smoking (promotional) versus the health risks aspects of the campaign warrants further research.