How do we persuade

A story on the beebs website caught my eye today about the likelihood of cigarette vending machines being outlawed.

As a non-smoker I have no active opinion on the possibility, but I am very interested in what this says about how society changes individuals' behaviour. We are all taught from a very early age that smoking is wrong, and generally most pre-pubescent children will accept that, but then around puberty some may start to see things differently. Similarly, most of us know that we should eat five pieces of fruit and vegatable a day, and why. Yet how many people actually do.?

Can you actually persuade someone to do something when it is patently goood for them? Indeed, do we as society have any right to seek to do so?

In terms of the former question, I think we come up with on the one hand what the brain says, and on the other what the heart says. Moreover, we cannot ignore the impact of socialisation, that it is seen in some peer groups as 'cool' to smoke. So is it a situation of rational arguement does not work? Or maybe we have not yet got the right rational/emotive message. For example, would a campaign aimed at encouraging teenagers and young adults to stop smoking if the message was 'kiss a non-smoker and enjoy the differnece'? I suspect not.

Rather the lesson from the smoking issue is that there needs to a stick, some sort of sanction or direct encouragement, to change behaviour.