Perceived Similarity of Exemplar Traits and Behavior

Communicators often seek effective messages for attempting to influence people’s behaviors, such as reducing college students’ drinking. Social cognitive theory suggests that identification with a character or example may increase the likelihood that audiences will model behavior presented in an anti-alcohol message. Exemplars such as those sometimes used in news stories may elicit desirable modeling. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the relationships among social desirability and social orientation, alcohol consumption, perceived similarity of exemplars, and message effectiveness. An experiment exposed 204 university students to magazine messages on tanning in which a demographically similar exemplar’s alcohol consumption and socializing were manipulated. Perceived similarity of exemplars was positively related to message effectiveness. Messages including alcohol consumption and social situations were most effective. Subjects’ drinking and social orientation were positively related to similarity. Gender and self-reported alcohol consumption were important variables in discerning perceived similarity and message effectiveness.