Attractiveness of Female Smokers 1

Cultural Differences in the Perceived Attractiveness of Female Smokers:

A Comparison between Western and East Asian Cultures

Authors

Ai Miyamoto1)2), Hideaki Miyamoto1)3), Deborah George2) and Elizabeth

Brimacombe2)

1) NPO Womens Respiratory Disease Research Organization in Tokyo, Japan, 2) Department

of Psychology, in the faculty of Social Science, University of Victoria in British Columbia,
Canada, 3) Southern Tohoku General Hospital in Koriyama, Japan.

Contact address

Hideaki Miyamoto, MD : Chief director of NPO Womens Respiratory Disease Research

Organization, Tokyo Clinic 2-2-1 Ootemachi Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0004, Japan,

TEL:024-934-5322, FAX:024-922-5320,

E-mail:h.miyagen@hotmail.co.jp
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 2

Abstract
Smoking among females is a serious issue in the world today. Previous studies have

demonstrated a link between smoking and attractiveness 1). The present study investigated

cultural differences in the perceived attractiveness of female smokers in Western and East Asian

cultures. There were 102 participants (81 females), and half the participants were Caucasians

while the other half were Asian students at a mid-sized Canadian University. Participants were

shown a picture of a female either with or without a cigarette and asked to rate the attractiveness

of the model. The Caucasian participants were shown the Caucasian model and the Asian

participants were shown the Asian model. The results of the study indicated a strong relationship

between smoking and attractiveness as well as cultural differences. Consistent with past research,

non-smoking models were perceived as more attractive than smoking models in both Western

and East Asian cultures. Also, Caucasian participants rated the model as significantly more

attractive overall than Asian participants, and rating differences between the smoking and the

non-smoking models were larger for the Western model than for the Asian model, indicating a

stronger impact of cigarettes on the perceived attractiveness of the model for the Caucasian

participants. The results of the present study can be applied to future smoking prevention

programs.

Key words

tobacco, female smoker, attractiveness, cultural difference, Asia

 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 3

Cultural Differences in the Perceived Attractiveness of Female Smokers:

A Comparison between Western and East Asian Cultures

Background
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Smoking has been realized as a health

hazard, and many researchers have investigated the link between cigarette smoking and lung

cancer since 1950. Recently, some researchers have also recognized gender differences in

susceptibility to lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases. According to Henschke, Yip,

and Miettinen, females are twice as likely as males to suffer from lung cancer with the same

amount of cigarette consumption 2). Moreover, women have greater difficulty quitting smoking,

and they are physically and emotionally more dependent on cigarettes than men 3). Smoking also

has a negative influence on health for pregnant women and their unborn children 4). Although

both biological and psychological consequences of smoking for females are much more serious

than males, according to the WHO, about 250 million women in the world are still daily smokers

today. Moreover, the smoking rate among women is on the rise while the smoking rate among

men appears to have peaked and has decreased substantially over a few decades. Tobacco

industries are promoting young women as new targets for cigarette consumers especially in

many developing countries where women are less educated about health risk associated with

cigarettes 5). Recognizing this trend, the WHO has selected "Gender and tobacco with an

emphasis on marketing to women" as the theme for the next World No Tobacco Day, May 31st,

2010. This event is to highlight an epidemic of tobacco among women and to draw particular

attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards girls. The WHO also suggests that

women differ in their smoking behaviours from men in various aspects; therefore, it is important
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 4

to use different strategies for each gender to discourage them from smoking. The importance of

the present study is to focus attention to the smoking issues among females especially

adolescents and young girls and to contribute to the future prevention of smoking among the

target population.

Many smokers have their first puff of a cigarette in their adolescence, and early age of

initiation is related to more cigarette consumption, long-term dependency on smoking, and

greater risk of disease 6). The influence of parental smoking and friends smoking is one of the

strongest predictors for smoking initiation among teenagers 7). Flay et al. have found that friends

smoking had a stronger effect on smoking determinants than parental smoking 8). Also, parental

influence was stronger for females than males possibly because girls tend to be more susceptible

to societal influences than boys 9). Media influence is another determinant for adolescent

smoking. Positive images created by the media including movies, magazines, and TV can vary

across gender. Boys tend to smoke to be hard and cool while girls tend to smoke to be

glamorous and attractive 10). In contrast to many teenage girls and young women who see

feminine traits in cigarettes such as sexuality and maturity, other females view cigarettes as the

symbol of independence and freedom for women 11). Perceived benefits of tobacco are another

attraction to smokers. A lot of smokers believe that smoking will reduce stress; however,

smoking only reverses the emotional distress from nicotine deprivation and does not improve

their mood 12). One of the main reasons for smoking that is unique to women is body weight

control. Many young women believe that smoking will help them keep their body weight low 13).

However, it is not the best way to control weight considering the long-term health consequences.

They are also afraid to quit smoking because of a possible rebound in weight; however, weight

gain after smoking cessation is often exaggerated 14).

 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 5

Many anti-smoking campaigns have been trying to encourage females to refrain from

smoking these days. It seems that some campaigns are effective while others are not. Hansen,

Winzeler, and Topolinski found that death-related warnings were ineffective and even caused

more positive attitudes in people who had high smoking-based self-esteem, whereas death-

unrelated warnings such as smoking makes you unattractive were effective, the more people

based their self-esteem on smoking 15). Grogan, Fry, Gough, and Conner examined the

effectiveness of British anti-smoking campaign, give up to save face and found that young

non-smokers were concerned about the influence of smoking on their appearance such as skin-

aging or yellowing of skin and teeth, while smokers said they would be concerned only if they

could see the actual changes on their skin 16). According to Hayes and Ross, some anti-smoking

advertisements do not mention health; however, they emphasize beauty in non-smokers because

factors such as physical attractiveness, appearance, and popularity are meaningful to youth 17).

Based on the assumption that concern with appearance has a stronger impact for young, rather

than middle aged and older people, and for women rather than men 17), young females may be

motivated to quit smoking because of the concern with their appearance in order to maintain

their beauty or physical attractiveness.

Physical attractiveness has a substantial influence on first impressions that people form of one

another 18). People like others who are attractive, and two theories have been suggested to

explain this phenomenon: evolutionary theory and the bias for beauty. There is some evidence to

support the importance of physical attractiveness on liking from the evolutionary perspective.

First, peoples preference for beauty appears to be innate because newborn infants prefer

attractive faces to unattractive faces. Slater, Schulenburg, Brown, and Badenoch showed

newborn infants pictures of attractive and unattractive faces and measured the time they gazed at
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 6

those pictures 19). They found that newborn infants looked at attractive faces longer than

unattractive faces. Also, infants preference for the faces was positively and significantly

correlated with adults ratings of the faces, indicating that babies are born with preferences for

the same faces that adults find attractive. Second, evolutionary psychology suggests that facial

attractiveness can be associated with various characteristics of fitness, suggesting that a

preference for physically attractive faces can be explained by good genes sexual selection 20).

However, several past studies have shown that although there is a small correlation between

attractiveness and health for women, there is no significant relationship for men 21). In addition

to evolutionary perspectives, the bias for beauty also plays an important role for explaining the

reason why people like others who are pretty and lovely. People tend to assume that attractive

people also have socially desirable traits. According to Langlois et al., people rated attractive

children and adults more positively and treated them more favourably than unattractive children

and adults 22). Moreover, attractiveness was moderately associated with intelligence,

performance, and adjustment in children and strongly associated with popularity, success, and

dating/sexual experiences for adults. Dion, Berscheid, and Walster investigated stereotypes of

attractive people and found that physically attractive people were perceived to have various

positive traits including kindness, strength, extroversion, sociability, and sexual warmth 23).

Attractive people were also expected to have futures that involve more prestige, happier

marriages, more social and professional success, and more fulfilling lives compared to

unattractive people.

The standard of physical attractiveness appears to be universal. Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee,

Druen, and Wu used a number of photographs of females across cultures and asked participants

to rate attractiveness as well as 28 separate measurements of facial features of the models 24).
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 7

They found that judgements of attractiveness were similar across Asian, Hispanic, European

American and African American judges. It is also known that women who have baby-faced

characteristics including large eyes, a small nose, a small chin, and full lips appear to be more

attractive, and the baby face is also preferred by men all over the world 25). Also, the more

symmetrical and averaged the face is, the more attractive it appears to be, and this is true across

gender and cultures 26). It appears that to a limited extent, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

but people generally agree on who is and who is not beautiful 27). Furthermore, the bias for

beauty is also a cross-cultural phenomenon. Wheeler and Kim examined cultural differences in

physical attractiveness stereotypes in individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures 28). They

found that the stereotypes of attractive individuals among South Koreans were similar to the

North American stereotypes which include greater social competence, adjustment, intellectual

competence, sexual interest/warmth, and lesser modesty. However, they also found that Koreans

associated concern for others and integrity/honesty with attractive people while North Americans

did not. They explained that in collectivistic cultures that emphasize a group harmony, those

characteristics are valued more compared to individualistic cultures. It seems that physical

attractiveness stereotypes are generally similar across cultures but are somewhat varied

depending on specific values of the culture.

Several past studies have investigated the relationship between smoking and attractiveness.

Wiium, Aaro, and Hetland examined subjective attractiveness in smoking and chewing tobacco

use among young Norwegians through phone interviews 29). They found that both tobacco and

chewing tobacco use were perceived as unattractive, and the younger the participants were, the

less attractive they perceived smoking. Clark, Klesges, and Neimeyer also investigated the

attractiveness of smokers and non-smokers by using videotapes of models 1). They found that
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 8

non-smoking models were perceived as more attractive than smoking models overall. Polivy,

Hackett, and Bycio showed that smokers were seen as generally less attractive by using sets of

photographs as stimuli 30). Jones and Carroll examined the perceived social characteristics of

female smokers and non-smokers in Australia 31). According to their study, female smokers

were perceived as more outgoing, more sophisticated, more independent and less emotional;

however, they were not found to be more attractive compared to female non-smokers.

It appears that in Western cultures, smokers are perceived to be less attractive than non-

smokers in general. Previous research suggests three specific factors that influence differences in

the perceived attractiveness of female smokers and non-smokers: gender of the model, gender of

the observer, and the smoking status of the observer. One study found that non-smoking female

models were rated as more attractive than smoking female models; however, male models were

perceived as equally attractive regardless of their smoking status 1). Smoking behaviour was

seen to be more negative for females than for males, which might be attributed to the

distinctiveness of smoking habits among females compared to males in our society 1). Gender of

perceivers also matters. Chewing tobacco use was perceived to be unattractive by both females

and males; however, females perceived it as even less attractive compared to males 29). Another

thing that affects the attractiveness of smokers and non-smokers is the smoking status of the

perceivers. In one study, non-smokers found non-smoking models significantly more attractive

than smoking models, while smokers did not make a significant distinction in attractiveness

between non-smoking and smoking models 30). Clark, Klesges, & Neimeyer 1) also found

similar results and used two theoretical approaches to investigate this tendency; the similarity-

attraction effect and schema theory. According to the former approach, non-smokers prefer non-

smokers and smokers prefer smokers because people prefer others who are similar to themselves
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 9

32). The latter approach, schema theory suggests that people tend to categorize others

cognitively based on common attributes 33). Non-smokers tend to have a negative schema of

smokers; therefore, they are likely to rate smokers more negatively than non-smokers 1).

The relationship between attractiveness and smoking may be different across cultures for

various reasons including smoking rates, economics, and cultural norms. Females smoke more

frequently in some regions compared to other regions in the world. In fact, smoking rates for

women are less than 10 % in many countries in the Western Pacific Regions including East Asia

and the Pacific, while smoking rates for women in most Western countries are higher than 20 %.

This gap is largely explained by the differences in economic development of these regions

(WHO). Many countries in the Western Pacific Regions are less developed than North American

or European countries. However, although women in developing countries smoke less

frequently than women in developed countries, there is great concern that the numbers of female

smokers might increase because of increase in social acceptability for women to smoke and

womens spending power 34). However, in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and

Taiwan where economies are fairly well-developed, females smoking rates are still lower than

Western developed countries. This can be explained by cultural norms or traditional values in

Asia. Smoking is a male-oriented behavior; therefore, masculine characteristics associated with

cigarettes make female smokers appear to be unfeminine or unladylike 11). Asian women tend to

improve their private and public esteem by conforming to the feminine gender role 35).

According to the WHO, in Asia, smoking was traditionally considered to be unfeminine and it

was socially unacceptable for women to engage in such behaviours. This might be the reason for

the large gender discrepancy in smoking rates in Asian developed countries. For example,

according to the WHO Tobacco Atlas 2002, in China, 66.9 % of males smoked while only 4.2 %
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 10

of females smoked. In the Republic of Korea, 65.1 % of males smoked compared to 4.8 % of

females. In Japan, 52.8 % of males and 13.4 % of females smoked. However, the gender gap in

smoking rates in Western countries is not as large as in these Asian countries. For instance, in

Canada, in 2002, 27% of males smoked compared to 23 % of females. In the United States, 25.7 %

of males and 21.5 % of females smoked. In the United Kingdom, 27 % of males and 26 % of

females smoked. In summary, it seems that Asian and Western countries not only differ in

smoking rates among women, but also in cultural perceptions of female smoking behaviour.

According to the WHO, in Western countries, many doctors have emphasized the importance

of smoking prevention, and anti-smoking activities are well-supported by governments as well as

various health organizations. As a result, there has been a substantial decrease in smoking rates

for both sexes in many Western countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, and

many of the European countries over the past few decades. In contrast, among the WHO regions,

the Western Pacific Region has the highest smoking rate, with nearly two thirds of men smoking.

Moreover, about one in three cigarettes in the world are consumed in the Western Pacific

Regions. Despite the fact that there are fewer female smokers in Asian countries compared to the

West, the WHO warns that smoking rates for females are increasing significantly after the entry

of foreign multinational tobacco firms into Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand. While

there are several studies that investigated the link between smoking and attractiveness in Western

countries, there is little in the published literature in Asia that addresses this subject. The purpose

of the present study is to help fill this gap or to investigate the link between attractiveness and

smoking for Asian cultures and to compare it to Western cultures. Based on previous research, it

is hypothesized that non-smoking models will be perceived as more attractive than smoking
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 11

models by both Western and East Asian young adults. In addition, there will be cultural

differences in the perceived attractiveness of female smokers compared to female non-smokers.

Method

Participants

102 students at a mid-sized Canadian university participated in the study. Most of the

students were from undergraduate psychology courses and participated for extra course credits.

The rest of the students were East Asian students who were studying English as a second

language at the university and participated in the study as volunteers without any compensation.

There were 21 males and 81 females in total. The mean age of the subjects was 20, with a range

from 18 to 30 years. Half the participants were born and raised in Western countries such as

North America and Europe. The rest of the participants were born and completed at least an

elementary education in East Asian countries including Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Materials and Procedures

Participants were run in groups of less than 10 at a time. The researcher told the participants

that this was a study regarding the social perception of individuals. Participants were told that

they would be viewing a photograph of a female, and asked to answer questions about her based

on their first impression. Photographs were used as stimuli in the present study because past

research has mentioned that although videotapes might be similar to real settings as stimuli, it is

more difficult to exclude confounding variables compared to photographs. Participants were

advised that they could withdraw from the experiment at any time, and asked to read and sign a
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 12

consent form. Participants who were not fluent English speakers were encouraged to use a

dictionary or ask the researcher when they did not understand instructions or questions during the

study. The researcher then showed a picture of a female to the participants. There were a total of

four photographs: a Caucasian girl with a cigarette (Figure 1), the same Caucasian girl without a

cigarette (Figure 2), an East Asian girl with a cigarette (Figure 3), and the same East Asian girl

without a cigarette (Figure 4). Participants from Western cultures were shown a photograph of a

Caucasian girl, and participants from East Asian cultures were shown a photograph of an East

Asian girl. Each participant was shown only one picture of a girl, either with or without a

cigarette. After exposure to the photograph, they were asked to answer items about the girl in a

photograph in order to investigate their perception of her attractiveness. The girls physical

attractiveness was measured using the subscale measurements of physical attractiveness of

interpersonal attraction items developed by McCrosky and McCain 36). However, 4 out of 10

questions were deleted because of their relevance (e.g., she wears neat clothes), resulting in a

total of 6 questions (Figure 5). The internal reliability of the questions ranged from .61 to .85. All

of the questions were answered by 7-point Likert scale (e.g., I think she is quite pretty, 1 =

strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Half of the questions were reverse-scored questions to

avoid response bias (e.g., I dont like the way she looks, 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly

agree). After the participants answered the test items, they were asked to fill in a questionnaire

regarding their demographic information including questions about their age, their home country,

and their smoking status (Figure 6). The entire study took approximately 10 to 20 minutes. After

completion, participants were thanked and debriefed about the true purpose of the study.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 13

Results

A 2 2 (the smoking status of the model participants culture) analysis of variance was

performed on participants attractiveness ratings. Levens test for the assumption of

homogeneity of variance was significant at p < .02. Therefore, the assumption was violated. A

possible reason for this violation was the larger response variance for Asian compared to

Caucasian participants. There was a significant main effect for the smoking status of the model

F (1, 98) = 7.84, p < .01. Participants rated non-smoking models attractiveness significantly

higher than smoking models overall (non-smoking models, N = 51, M = 5.02; smoking models,

N = 51, M = 4.45). There was also a significant main effect of culture F (1, 98) = 60.19, p < .001.

Western participants rated the attractiveness of models as significantly higher than Asian

participants (Western participants, N = 51, M = 5.42; Asian participants, N = 51, M = 4.05). In all,

7 % of variability was explained by the smoking status of the model (R2 = .07) and 38 % of

variability was explained by culture (R2 = .38). As Figure 1 shows, there was no significant

interaction between the smoking status of the model and culture on attractiveness F(1, 98) = .18,

p > .67. The mean difference between the smoking model and the non-smoking model was

bigger for Western participants compared to Asian participants (Western participants, Mean

difference = .56; Asian participants, Mean difference = .41), showing that the impact of

cigarettes on the attractiveness of the model was stronger for Western participants than for Asian

participants. Moreover, there was a correlation between gender and attractiveness of the models,

rpb = .22. 5 % of variability was explained by gender, R2 = .05. Male participants generally rated

the models lower than female participants. However, this has to be interpreted carefully due to

the small sample size of male participants. (Table 1)

 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 14

Discussion

The primary goal of this study was to investigate cultural differences in the perceived

attractiveness of female smokers. It was hypothesized that non-smoking models would be

perceived as more attractive than smoking models for both Western and Asian cultures.

Moreover, there would be cultural differences in the perceived attractiveness of non-smoking

and smoking models between the Western and the Asian participants. Both hypotheses were

supported. Consistent with past research, non-smoking models were perceived as significantly

more attractive than smoking models regardless of their culture. There were cultural differences

in the perceived attractiveness of non-smoking and smoking models. The results showed that

Western participants rated the attractiveness of the model as significantly higher than the Asian

participants. There are three possible explanations for this finding. First, the Asian participants

may have a cultural tendency to avoid extreme scores and therefore responded around the middle

score, while the Western participants were responding in an upper range of scores. In the Asian

culture, people value politeness, respect for authority, and avoidance of shame. Asian people

tend to avoid saying unpleasant things in order to not make themselves or others feel

embarrassed 37). The mean score for the Asian participants was around the middle score of 4 out

of 7 point scale. It is possible that the Asian participants avoided extremely high or low scores to

show politeness. The Asian participants might keep their responses neutral in order to avoid

being judged about how they perceived the model. Secondly, it is possible that the Caucasian

model was in fact perceived as more attractive than the Asian model. Although the picture

backgrounds and posture of the two models were identical, their attractiveness was not controlled.

Also, the Caucasian model had a slight smile in her facial expression while the Asian model did
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 15

not. Many Caucasian participants mentioned smiles as a factor that influenced their ratings while

Asians did not. One Caucasian participant said, slight smile makes her seem trustworthy to me,

while the other said, she is kind of smiling and seems very at ease and comfortable.

Cunningham found that people perceived a face with a wider smile significantly more attractive

than a face without smiles 38). They mentioned that smile indicates positive emotions such as

joy, friendliness, and sociability that are associated with attractiveness. According to the

participants written responses, the Caucasian model was described as friendly, natural, lovely,

relaxed, happy, approachable, kind, and nice, while the Asian model was described as lonely,

unkind, and sad. People might have given different responses if the Asian model also had a

slight smile. Finally, Asian people might be more critical concerning physical appearance than

Western people. Jung and Lee investigated cultural differences in concern with appearance

between Korean and American women 39). They found that Korean women were more critical

and had lower evaluations about their physical attractiveness. Although Korean women were

objectively thinner than American women (28.3 % of American women were underweight while

77.9% of Korean women were underweight in the sample population), Korean women were less

satisfied with their appearance and had a larger discrepancy between an actual and an ideal body

image. Jung and Lee discussed that females in collectivist cultures such as the Korean culture

might be more critical about their physical appearance compared to individualistic cultures

because collectivist cultures place more emphasis on gender roles and have higher expectations

for women to look beautiful 39). Low Body Mass Index (BMI) and the recent increase in

popularity of cosmetic surgeries in Asia can be attributed to an extreme concern with their

appearance as well. In the present study, the Asian participants described the model more

negatively than Caucasian participants regardless of the smoking status of the model. For
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 16

example, Asian participants were more concerned with detailed facial features such as eyes, nose,

and mouth, while Caucasians considered overall impressions of the model when they rated the

models physical attractiveness. Moreover, Asians seemed to associate sexiness with the body

shape of the model while this was not the case for the Caucasian participants. When participants

were asked to answer whether the model was sexy or physically attractive, many Asians said it

was hard to tell without seeing the body shape of the girl. In contrast, Caucasians did not

necessarily associate a sexy girl with a glamorous body, but rated sexiness based on their

impression about the model. For instance, one Caucasian participant mentioned that she is

pretty, but not a sexy type, the other said she looks like a shy person and that makes her appear

to be less sexy. These participants responses imply that the Asian participants might be more

critical with their judgements of physical attractiveness than Western participants as Asians paid

more attention on the specific physical characteristics including facial features and the body

shape rather than overall impressions of the model.

The most unexpected finding of this study was that the Western participants had a larger

discrepancy in attractiveness ratings between the smoking model and the non-smoking model. In

other words, the impact of cigarettes on physical attractiveness was stronger for Western

participants than for Asian participants. This may be explained by a higher awareness of

smoking issues among Western people compared to Asian people. According to the WHO,

smoking rates have been decreasing significantly for both men and women in Western countries,

especially in North America. Canada has one of the lowest smoking rates for both males and

females in the world. According to Health Canada, smoking rates in Canada among people over

15 years of age was 35 % in 1985. In 2008, 18 % of people were current smokers. In 1999, 23 %

of males and 19 % of females were daily smokers. However, only 15 % of males and 12 % of
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 17

females are daily smokers today. More surprisingly, British Columbia has the lowest smoking

rate among all provinces in Canada. Only 10 % of people who are 15 years and older is daily

smokers. This substantial decrease in smoking rates in Canada is reflected by many actions taken

over the past decades. According to the WHO, Canada was the first country in the world to put

photos on cigarette packages to go along with 16 different text messages, in English and French,

such as Cigarettes cause Lung Cancer, and Cigarettes Cause Strokes. In contrast, Asian

countries are not active with anti-smoking campaigns compared to the West. Although pictorial

health warnings are required in many Western countries, they are often not required in East

Asian countries. Also, Asians appear to be less influenced by anti-smoking messages. Terry-

Mcelrath investigated the effect of the exposure to the anti-tobacco advertising within the

previous 4 months on reduction in beliefs such as perceived smoking prevalence among friends

across gender and various ethnicities 40). They found that the effect was weaker for Asians than

other ethnicities. Today, smoking is banned in virtually all enclosed public places and indoor

workplace, under laws enacted by the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal government

in Canada and various other Western countries. According to the tobacco atlas by the WHO,

smoking bans encourage smokers to smoke less, have greater success in quitting smoking, and

have better confidence in their ability to quit. Smoking bans also protect non-smokers from

second hand smoking. In East Asian countries, smoking is not banned in many public areas as

well as offices. Moreover, smoke free-legislation covering either health-care or educational

facilities is absent except in Hong Kong where smoking was prohibited in all public spaces as

well as in restaurants and bars a few years ago (WHO). However, public smoking bans are still

very inactive even in one of the most developed industrialized nations like Japan, because

smoking bans are strongly opposed by the worlds third largest tobacco company, Japan Tobacco
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 18

which is partly owned and controlled by the Japanese government. Tobacco prices and taxes are

other actions to discourage people from smoking. WHO reports that a 10 % increase in cigarette

prices reduces cigarette demand by 2.5 to 5 %. Increase in tax is especially effective for

encouraging youth and low-income smokers to stop smoking. In China, a 10 % increase in

cigarette price would raise enough revenue to pay for the basic health needs of 33 million rural

residents. Cigarette tax not only improves the public health but also contributes to the national

economic health. However, in Asia, tobacco prices and taxes are much lower compared to

Western countries. The issue of an easy access to tobacco use is not limited to the low price of

tobacco in Asia. For example, in Japan, there are 570,000 cigarette vending machines that

allowed everyone including teenagers to easily purchase cigarettes until 2008 when they started

to require an ID called taspo or tobacco passport for the use of tobacco vending machines.

Because of more actions against smoking such as anti-smoking campaigns, smoking bans, and

increase in tobacco prices and taxes in Western countries compared to Asian countries, it is

expected that Western people are more aware of smoking issues and health risks associated with

cigarettes than Asians. In addition, when Caucasians were asked to explain what factors affected

their ratings, many participants mentioned that the presence of cigarettes lowered their ratings

because they find smoking unattractive. Most of the Caucasian participants seemed to associate

smoking with negative attributes. For example, participants said, smoking suggests she may

have minor psychological issues, I associate smoking with a bad smell, I think smoking is

disgusting, and smoking makes her look less clean. Although many tobacco advertisements

involve sexuality to attract women, the Caucasian participants tended to perceive the smoking

model as less sexy. One person said, I liked the way the woman looked, although I dont think

she looked very sexy because of the cigarette, while the other person said, I thought that she
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 19

looked like a very attractive girl; however, the cigarette made her seem less sexy to me. It

seemed that although people generally found the Caucasian model fairly attractive and pretty, the

cigarette that she was holding degraded her attractiveness as well as her sexiness. Many

participants mentioned that they would have rated her attractiveness higher if the model was not

smoking. On the contrary, the Asian participants did not possess negative attitudes toward

cigarettes in the same way that the Caucasian participants did. Asians mentioned cigarettes as a

factor to judge the models attractiveness much less frequently than Caucasians when they were

shown the smoking model. Some Asian participants claimed that cigarettes did not affect their

ratings at all. In fact, some Asian participants, especially female never smokers had relatively

positive attitudes towards smoking. Among those participants, female smokers were perceived as

sexy, mature, and cool. One girl said, I think a girl who smokes is attractive because she is

unique since not many girls are smokers. It is possible that these relatively positive attitudes

towards smoking among girls could be one of the reasons why female smoking rates in Asia

have not been decreasing.

There are several limitations to this study. First, gender differences were difficult to assess

due to the small male sample size. Past research investigated the relationship between gender of

the model and the smoking status of the model, indicating that the impact of cigarettes on

attractiveness tends to be stronger for girls than boys. However, not many studies have found a

significant relationship between the gender of perceivers and attractiveness of the model. It

would be interesting to see how male participants differ in their perception of female smokers

from female participants. Secondly, the influence of the smoking status of participants was not

examined due to the lack of current smokers in the sample. According to Clark, Klesges, and

Neimeyer 1), there was an interaction between participant smoking status and model smoking
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 20

status. They found that female non-smokers tended to rate non-smoking models more attractive

than smoking models, whereas female smokers were more likely to rate smoking models and

non-smoking models equally attractive. In the present study, one Caucasian female smoker

mentioned that smoking made the girl look rebellious which is appealing. There was also an

Asian girl who said the cigarette did not affect how she rated the model because she is a smoker.

In this study, most of the participants were female never smokers. It is possible that the tendency

to like non-smoking models over smoking models could be attributed to the restricted sample of

female never smokers. Therefore, further research with the inclusion of more male participants

as well as more current smokers is needed. A third limitation of this study is the photographs

used as stimuli. The Caucasian model and the Asian model were not manipulated to be equal in

physical attractiveness; therefore, we cannot ensure whether the Caucasians tendency to rate

models higher than Asians is because of their culture or simply the higher attractiveness of the

Caucasian model. Another way to investigate this phenomenon would be to show the Caucasian

models picture to the Asian participants and the Asian models picture to Caucasian participants.

If the attractiveness ratings of the model from same-race participants differ from the ratings from

cross-race participants, it may be because of cultural differences in the judgements of

attractiveness. Thus, in addition to culture of participants and smoking status of the model, it

would be interesting to include culture of the model as a new independent variable in this

study. Finally, the last limitation of this study is that each participant sees only one photograph.

The use of more photographs would help to counterbalance attractiveness, and address the issue

of individual differences in attractiveness of the two models in this study.

In conclusion, considering the issue of female smoking epidemic in the world especially in

Asia, this study indicates that we can discourage young girls from smoking by emphasizing the
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 21

beauty and attractiveness of non-smokers over smokers. By telling young girls that they look

better without cigarettes because they are already attractive the way they are, they can

appreciate their health and youth as their natural beauty and stay away from cigarettes that will

degrade their attractiveness. Moreover, the results of this study suggest that it would be useful

for Asian countries to take more action against smoking and to increase health awareness among

young adults by conducting more research about smoking, anti-smoking campaigns, public

smoking bans, and increasing tobacco prices and taxes.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Dr. Valerie Gonzales, who has taught me advanced statistics and research

methods and helped me doing statistical analysis of the data. Special thanks should be given to

my friends who volunteered to be a model and who helped me edit pictures used in the study.

Finally, I would like to thank my friends who supported me in any respect during the completion

of the study.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 26

Figure 1.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 27

Figure 2.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 28

Figure 3.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 29

Figure 4.
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 30

Figure 5.

1. I think she is quite pretty.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

2. I dont like the way she looks.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

3. She is very sexy looking.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

4. She is somewhat ugly.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

5. She is very attractive physically.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

6. She is not very good looking.

strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree

Now that you have finished the questions, why did you rate the woman the way you did, what

are the things that affected your rating of the woman in the photo?
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 31

Figure 6.

1. How old are you?

_______________________________________________________________

2. What is your biological sex?

Female Male

3. Were you born in Canada?

Yes No

If No, which country are you from? _________________________________

If No, or your permanent home is outside of Canada, how long have you been in Canada? (For
example, if you came to Canada 2 years ago for post secondary education, then you have been
here for 2 years.)

_______________________________________________________________

4. Please identify yourself.

never-smoker (you have never smoked in your life)
former smoker (you have smoked before, but have not smoked for 4 years)
current smoker (you smoke daily or occasionally).

If you are a current smoker, how many cigarettes do you usually smoke per week?

______________________________________________________________________

5. Do your parents smoke?

Mother: Yes No
Father: Yes No

6. Are you currently in a relationship? Yes No

 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 32

Table 1.

3 smoking model
non-smoking model
2

0
Western culture Asian culture
 Attractiveness of Female Smokers 33

Figure 1.

The Caucasian girl smoking model

Figure 2.

The Caucasian girl non-smoking model

Figure 3.

The Asian girl smoking model

Figure 4.

The Asian girl non-smoking model

Figure 5.

Question sheet #1:By looking at the girl on the screen, please circle the number based on how

much you agree with each sentence.

Figure 6.

Question sheet # 2

Table 1.

Influence of culture and the smoking status of the model on attractiveness



1)2), 1)3), Deborah George2)Elizabeth Brimacombe2)

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