Attentional Bias in Snus Users: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The use of nicotine in the form of “snus” is substantial and increasing in some geographic areas, in particular among young people. It has previously been suggested that addictions may operate through a mechanism of attentional bias, in which stimuli representative of the dependent substance increase in salience, thus increasing the addictive behavior. However, this hypothesis has not been tested for the case of snus. The current experiment used a modified Stroop task and a dot-probe task to investigate whether 40 snus users show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli, compared to 40 non-snus users. There were no significant differences between the two groups on reaction times or accuracy on either Stroop or dot-probe task, thus failing to show an attentional bias towards snus-relevant stimuli for snus users. This could imply that other mechanisms may contribute to maintenance of snus use than for other addictions. However, this is the first experimental study investigating attentional bias in snus users, and more research is warranted.

A Preliminary Investigation on Smokeless Tobacco Use and Its Cognitive Effects Among Athletes

“…Although the published evidence (i.e., Naudé et al, 2015 ) seems to back up the effectiveness of nicotine on decision-making process, our data do not clarify if the hypothesis that the use of snus by athletes is due to addictive properties of nicotine. Also, until now, the literature into snus effects on exercise ( Zandonai et al, 2016 ) and cognitive performance (i.e., Mentzoni et al, 2014 study’s did not support the hypothesis that snus users would show an attentional bias toward snus-related stimuli) has not demonstrated with clarity the real efficacy of this smokeless tobacco product. Therefore, we believe that the data of this preliminary investigation should be taken with caution.…”