PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of auricular acupressure therapy on decreasing smoking rates, desire for smoking, and exhaled carbon monoxide in male college students. METHODS: The quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. The participants (n=56) were assigned to the experimental group (n=29) that received auricular acupressure therapy or the control group (n=27) that received placebo therapy. The therapy was applied for 5 days followed by 1 or 2 days of rest. The therapy was repeated 2 times. To identify the effect of the experimental treatments, assessments of smoking rates, desire for smoking and exhaled carbon monoxide were measured. Data were analyzed using chi2 test, Fisher's exact test, t-test and Repeated measure ANOVA with the SPSS version 21.0 program. RESULTS: The experimental group showed significantly lower smoking rates (t=6.60, p<.001), desire for smoking (t=3.37, p=.002) and exhaled carbon monoxide levels (t=6.22, p<.001) after application of the therapy. Significant groupxtime interaction effect was found in exhaled carbon monoxide levels between the experimental group and the control group (F=8.73, p=.001). CONCLUSION: Auricular acupressure therapy was considered to likely be useful as a therapeutic intervention for smoking cessation in male young adults.