Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Nonsmokers' Perceptions of Cigarette Smokers' Credibility, Likeability, Attractiveness, Considerateness, Cleanliness, and Healthiness

2010; Routledge; Volume: 27; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/08824091003738073

1746-4099

John S. Seiter, Harry Weger, Mandy L. Merrill, R. Mark McKenna, Matthew L. Sanders,

Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Abstract This study examined perceptions of male and female models depicted smoking or not smoking cigarettes. Undergraduate students viewed photographs of smoking or nonsmoking models and then rated the models' credibility, homophily, attractiveness, likeability, considerateness, cleanliness, and healthiness. Analysis indicated that being viewed as a cigarette smoker damaged people's images. With the exception of two dimensions of credibility, smokers, compared to nonsmokers, were rated less favorably on every variable examined in this study. These results are discussed. Keywords: AttractivenessCigaretteCredibilityHomophilyImpression ManagementLikeabilityPerson PerceptionSmoking Notes a N = 127. b N = 118. c The Levine test for inequality of variances was significant, and significance tests for these variables do not assume equal variances. ∗p < .05. a Smokers coded 0 and nonsmokers coded 1. ∗p < .05 (two–tailed). ∗∗p < .01 (two–tailed). Because the differences in perceptions of individual models are to be expected, and because they are of little interest to the purpose of this study, no further discussion of them is taken up. An alternative model in which credibility mediates the effect of smoking on attractiveness was also computed and did not fit the data as well as the hypothesized model, χ2(65, N = 245) = 99.9, p = .05 (comparative fit index = .97, root mean square error of approximation =.05. This article is not subject to US copyright law. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn S. Seiter John S. Seiter (PhD, University of Southern California, 1993) is a Professor in the Department of Languages, Philosophy, and Speech Communication at Utah State University. Harry Weger Harry Weger, Jr. (PhD, University of Arizona, 1998) is an associate professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida. Mandy L. Merrill Mandy L. Merrill received their BA degrees from Utah State University in 2007. R. Mark McKenna R. Mark McKenna received their BA degrees from Utah State University in 2007. Matthew L. Sanders Matthew L. Sanders (PhD, University of Colorado, 2008) is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Philosophy, and Speech Communication at Utah State University.