Introduction. Emotional responsiveness (ER) has been theorized to play a protective role in pathways to tobacco initiation, regular use, and dependence, yet a possible association between ER and smoking behavior has not been studied. Our aim was to test whether measuring ER to a neutral stimulus was associated with decreased odds of current smoking. Methods. We measured ER and smoking status (current, former, and never) in two datasets a cross-sectional dataset of persons with diabetes () and a prospective dataset of depressed patients () from an urban primary care system. Because there were few former smokers in the datasets, smoking status was dichotomized (current versus formerever) and measured at baseline (cross-sectional dataset) or at 36 weeks after-baseline (prospective dataset). ER was ascertained with response to a neutral facial expression (any ER versus none). Results. Compared to their nonresponsive counterparts, adjusted odds of current smoking were lower among participants endorsing emotional responsiveness in both the cross-sectional and prospective datasets (ORs = .29 and .32, ’s , resp.). Discussion. ER may be protective against current smoking behavior. Further research investigating the association between ER and decreased smoking may hold potential to inform treatment approaches to improve smoking prevalence.
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