Psychological Aspects of Smoker-Nonsmoker Interaction: Implications for Public Policy

Legislated restriction of public smoking has become increasingly common on both the state and federal level over the past 2 decades. The resulting controversy has generally focused on the physiological effects of second-hand smoke while ignoring psychological aspects of smoker-nonsmoker interaction. This article reviews the psychological literature related to this issue and concludes (a) that legislated separation of these groups is necessary and (b) that this can be accomplished successfully only when those creating no-smoking and smoking-permitted areas pay close attention to environmental cues attended to by the users of those areas.