When Similarity Strikes Back: Conditional Persuasive Effects of Character-Audience Similarity in Anti-Smoking Campaign

Featuring an exemplar character similar to the target audience is one of the most widely used tactics of tailored and targeted communication. Having a similar character may increase the perceived relevance of the message and facilitate persuasion. However, the way the similar character is depicted may threaten the audience's social identity and cause a boomerang effect. In an experiment where daily smokers saw and evaluated anti-smoking messages, a significant interaction between character-audience similarity and message theme emerged, mediated by message engagement and character identification. Seeing a similar (vs. dissimilar) smoker character whose health was at risk increased the audience's identification with the character, which in turn was associated with greater perceived effectiveness. However, seeing a similar smoker character endangering innocent others via secondhand smoke undermined perceived effectiveness. The simple main effects of character-audience similarity on message engagement were not significant, although the overall pattern was consistent.