Cigarette 'chic' beats health warnings

Celebrities pictured smoking and drinking have more impact on young people's behaviour than any number of shock health warnings, new research reveals today.

Images of Kate Moss looking "chic" with a cigarette, the Sex And The City stars sipping cocktails or bad-boy actor Colin Farrell nursing a beer and cigarette can negate the Government's most hard-hitting messages that tobacco, drugs and alcohol pose a serious risk.

The report, by the Economic and Social Research Council, shows teenagers believe they are unaffected by such images. But in reality they unconsciously shape their views and behaviour.

And even multi-millionpound campaigns to drive home the devastating effect of drugs can be superseded by "cool" images of drug-taking rock'n'roll stars.

The study, which focused on a cross-section of British teenagers aged between 14 and 19, was carried out by leading social psychologist Professor Paschal Sheeran.

He said: "Our experiments showed that - in the same way that many people think that advertising affects others but not themselves - images can influence people.

"The next time you're watching TV, look to see how often someone is smoking or drinking, and how often you see someone taking physical exercise. Ask yourself what images are being presented."

The findings could force the Government to rethink its methods of tackling drinking, smoking and drug-taking among the young - and increase pressure on famous figures to temper their behaviour in public.

It could even lead to images of actors smoking and drinking being axed from film and TV screens.

The study, carried out at the University of Sheffield, focused on more than 450 secondary school-age pupils and 118 undergraduates. It included carefully controlled experiments to examine whether - and by how much - young people's own health choices were influenced by portrayals of smokers as "cool" or drinkers as "one of the lads".

Researchers found that, regardless of their willingness or conscious intentions, young people were more likely to do a particular thing when they thought the image was cool and something they could identify with. This proved to be the case whether the activity was healthy or potentially damaging.

Undergraduates were also asked to take part in what they thought were computerbased language experiments. In fact, they were confronted with words and images designed to suggest either positive or neutral images of drinking alcohol. Subsequent tests of how ready they were to drink revealed that, while none believed they had been influenced, they had.