The Celebrity Effect: How Celebrity Status and Emotional Expression in On-Screen Smoking Imagery Elicits More Positive Attitudes in Adolescents

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that smoking imagery on screens increases the risk of smoking among adolescents. However, it remains unclear whether the celebrity status of the smoking actor and the emotional expressions accompanying on-screen smoking influence adolescents' attitudes toward smoking in distinct ways. METHODS: A total of 112 adolescents (56 who smoke and 56 who do not smoke) participated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants rated their attitudes toward smoking images of actors with varying familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) while controlling for the actor's emotional state. In Experiment 2, the actor's familiarity was controlled, and participants rated their attitudes toward smoking images under different emotional states (positive, neutral, negative). RESULTS: Experiment 1 found that adolescents had more favorable smoking attitudes toward celebrity (vs. non-celebrity) figures. Experiment 2 showed that neutral emotional expressions elicited the most positive smoking attitudes under familiarity-controlled conditions. Across both experiments, adolescents who smoked consistently had more favorable attitudes toward smoking imagery than those who did not. IMPLICATIONS: This study supports para-social interaction theory and the emotion-as-social-information model by demonstrating that both the actor's identity and the emotional tone influence adolescents' attitudes toward smoking, highlighting implications for the regulation of youth-oriented media.