Attributions About Sexual Behavior, Attractiveness, and health as a Function of Subjects' and Targets' Sex and Smoking Status

This article examines the effects of subjects' sex and smoking status, as well as models' sex and models' smoking status on attributions regarding interpersonal attraction, sexual behavior, and health. Two hundred twenty-nine subjects watched videotapes of men and women smoking or not smoking as part of a study on first impressions. The results indicated that (a) smoking models were perceived as more sexually active than nonsmokers regardless of the subjects' smoking status; (b) smoking female models were seen as less likable, less attractive, and less healthy than nonsmoking female models, whereas no such differences emerged between smoking and nonsmoking male models; and (c) although women reported no differences in their preference to engage in intimate behavior (e.g., petting, kissing) as a function of the male model's smoking status, men preferred to engage in such intimate behaviors more with nonsmoking females than with smoking females. Implications of the results are discussed with regard to current theories of person perception.