What is it about?
People have been worried that smoking in movies may increase teen smoking. However, despite many worried claims, evidence has been thin. This meta-analytic review considers the extant literature in this area. Overall it is concluded that the evidence is unable to connect movie smoking to increases in teen smoking propensity.
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Why is it important?
If we want to understand how to reduce teen smoking we need to know which factors matter and which are a waste of time. Worrying about smoking in fictional media appears to be in the latter category. Focusing on this too much can distract from real causes of teen smoking.
Perspectives
It turns out that, by and large, fictional media has little impact on people's attitudes and behaviors. This is just yet another such example.
Christopher Ferguson
Stetson University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Movie smoking and teen smoking behavior: A critical methodological and meta-analytic review., Psychology of Popular Media Culture, November 2018, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000212.
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