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CAN CIGARETTE SMOKING MAKE A MAN APPEAR SEXIER AND
STRONGER TO WOMEN?
Anna Czarna
Institute of Psychology,
Jagiellonian University
This paper focuses on naďve theories, illusions, and misconceptions regarding the outcome of men’s
cigarette smoking on female impressions. Beliefs about those outcomes were examined in a correlational
study and their content was compared with the results of previous experimental verifi cation. Male and
female participants (N = 396) responded to an advertisement placed on an online general-interest forum
and completed a questionnaire concerning their beliefs about the impact of cigarette smoking in men
on their self-presentation to women. This included impressions of attractiveness, intelligence, strength,
sexiness, and other male qualities. Results show that people believe that smoking decreases a man’s
perceived aptitude for being a woman’s long-term partner. The belief that smoking enhances a man’s
attractiveness to a woman as a short-term partner was limited to female smokers. Non-smokers believed
that smoking in men signals poor impulse-control. Gender, age, smoking status (smoker vs non-smoker),
and number of cigarettes smoked daily appeared to play an important role in predicting expressed be-
liefs. Young female smokers were indicated as the subgroup bearing the most optimistic illusions.
Keywords: cigarette; smoking; belief, illusion; self-presentation;
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23 –
PL ISSN 0081–685X
DOI: 10.2478/v10167-010-0038-4
Despite widespread knowledge of the
dangerous effects of tobacco use and introduction
of anti-tobacco use legislation, Poland remains
a country with one of the highest cigarette
consumption rates in the world over the last
25 years (Balczewska, 2004; WHO Regional
Offi ce for Europe, 2009). Smoking prevalence
has decreased among males in Poland since
the 1970s when it was 64% (while it slightly
increased among females from 21% in 1970s
to 25% in 2011), but death rates attributed to
smoking have remained relatively constant and
high, representing 18-19% of all deaths in Poland
(29% of deaths within the male population)
according to World Health Organization. This
means that almost every fi fth Polish person (and
almost every third Polish man) dies of smoking-
related diseases (Szczuka & Roszkowski-Sliz,
2008; WHO Regional Offi ce for Europe, 2009).
Both smokers and non-smokers believe that
smoking is detrimental to good health (Biasco
& Hartnett, 2002; Hines, Fretz, & Nollen, 1998;
Kuznar-Kaminska, Brajer, Batura-Gabryel,
& Kaminski, 2008). In order to help provide
public information and anti-tobacco advocacy,
there are Great Polish Smoke-out campaigns
organized in November every year since 1992
(lasting for at least one month). Poland also
participates in the annual World No Tobacco Day
and introduced law which prohibits smoking in
public spaces in 2010. In spite of such efforts,
and a complete prohibition of advertising and
promotion of tobacco products in Poland since
1999, many people (including students in health-
Andrzej Szmajke
Institute of Psychology,
University of Opole
40
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24 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
related fi elds) still take up smoking (Kanicka,
Szpak, Drygas, Rzeźnicki, & Kowalska, 2007).
What makes people start smoking cigarettes
even though they are aware of its dangerous
effects? One of determinants of this paradoxical
phenomenon might be self-presentation. It is
possible that a strong factor underlying the
initiation of addictive behaviours is the wide-
spread misconceptions of their positive impact
on attractiveness (LaBrie, Cail, Hummer, & Lac,
2009; Martin & Leary, 2001); the objective of
this study was to indicate such misconceptions
and illusions in Polish people.
Scientists have proposed a possible mecha-
nism through which smoking might enhance at-
tractiveness. There is strong evidence that both
men and women prefer brave and risk-taking
individuals as partners and friends, with women
showing a gradual increase in desirability with
increasing risk (Bassett & Moss, 2004; Kelly &
Dunbar, 2001). Only women expressed a prefer-
ence for risk-takers in their long-term romantic
partners. These results are partially congruent
with predictions based on the perspective of evo-
lutionary psychology, particularly the parental
investment theory (Trivers, 1972) which states
that the sex which bears the greatest cost of re-
production (women in the case of homo sapiens)
will be the most selective when choosing a mate.
There are at least two candidate explanations as
to why ancestral women would have preferred
mates who engaged in dangerous and poten-
tially self-destructive behaviours: one states that
such behaviours help acquire higher status and
resources or demonstrate the abilities necessary
for resource acquisition. The other explanation is
that risk-taking might work as an honest cue or
signal for “good genes”, just as it was proposed
by Zahavi (1975), formalized by Grafen (1990)
and Godfray (1991), and elaborated and popular-
ized by Diamond (1992).
Zahavi’s Truthful Signalling Hypothesis
(TSH), known also as the Handicap Principle,
predicts that the more costly the feature, the more
honest the signal. The argument, originally for-
mulated by the biologist Amotz Zahavi, runs as
follows: in a population in which males vary in
their quality, some of the males possess a handi-
cap - a costly or deleterious character which re-
duces survival. If only males with high quality
genes can survive possessing a handicap, a fe-
male who mates preferentially with handicapped
males will only mate with males who survived
a test and have the best genotypes of the male
population.
Since its formulation over 30 years ago the
Handicap Principle has been offered to explain
a number of different human features and
behaviours, including reckless driving among
young men (Nell, 2002) and addictive behaviours
like tobacco and cigarette smoking (Diamond,
1992). It has been suggested that just like a
peacocks’ tail, they might serve as fi tness cues and
should therefore enhance a man’s attractiveness
by paradoxically signalling health and immunity.
Claims that the Handicap Principle can be
successfully applied to such a large number of
phenomena, ranging from suicide, potlatch, sex,
and menstruation to having breasts and beards
(Zahavi, 1997), met severe criticism. The review
of Zahavis’ book The handicap principle: A
missing piece of Darwin’s puzzle (1997) was
entitled Jumping to Bold Conclusions (Bullock,
1999) and it accused the work of informality,
lack of empirical support, and theoretical
consistency. The reviewer expressed doubt
that human behaviours claimed by Zahavis to be
“handicaps”, such as cigarette smoking, actually
satisfy the criteria of a handicap. To consider
such a possibility, there should be evidence
that: 1) evolution has selected for a tendency
to smoke; that is, those of our ancestors who
tended to smoke enjoyed increased reproductive
success (if we assume that smoking “has been
around” long enough to acquire any evolutionary
signifi cance) and 2) it should be demonstrated
what smoking actually signals and that it serves
only as a signal and has no other functions.
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25
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
Existing literature on smoking provides
answers to some of these considerations. First
of all, smoking has many functions outside of
signalling, and in fact these other functions
seem to be primary (Berlin et al., 2003).
Second, smoking is not a simple unequivocal
attractiveness-enhancer, nevertheless smokers
might believe so (Norman & Tedeschi, 1989;
Roth & Gammage, 2006). Martin and Leary
(2001) proved that out of 10 health-risk
behaviours, smoking was one of only two (along
with unprotected sex) behaviours performed in
order to create the impression of being attractive.
Indeed, few people sneak off alone for their
fi rst experiences with tobacco, alcohol, or other
drugs (Friedman, Lichtenstein & Biglan, 1985;
Leary, Tchividjian, & Kraxberger, 1994). Yet
studies do not provide consistent results about
impressions created from cigarette smoking.
Smoking has been associated with images of
toughness, independence, and maturity (Camp,
Klesges, & Relyea, 1993; Chassin, Presson,
Sherman, Corty, & Olshavsky, 1981; Covington
& Omelich, 1988), as well as adventurousness,
sociability, openness, fl exibility, emotional
deepness, and being unrepressed (Hines et al.,
1998; Shute, 1975). Biasco and Hartnett (2002),
who examined college students’ attitudes toward
smoking, indicated that 69% of participants agreed
with the statement “smoking is unattractive”.
However, in other studies it was associated with
being less attractive, less feminine or masculine,
and less refi ned. In those studies both smokers
and non-smokers preferred dating non-smokers
and found them more attractive than smokers
(Biasco & Hartnett, 2002; Hines et al., 1998).
It is possible that research methodology might
have been of crucial signifi cance here: studies
by Hines and colleagues (1998) and Biasco and
Hartnett (2002) used only self-reported aware
attitudes of their subjects, so they might have
failed to capture the possibly unaware infl uence
that smoking has on observers’ impressions. In an
experimental investigation by Jones and Carroll
(1998) using video presentations with hypothesis-
blind and manipulation-blind subjects, a smoking
female model was rated as more outgoing,
more sophisticated, not as easy to manipulate,
and less emotional about breaking up with her
boyfriend than her non-smoking counterpart.
Yet no differences in ratings of her popularity or
attractiveness were found. In another experiment
by Lee (1989) a female smoker was perceived as
less healthy but more independent, modern, and
hard-working than her non-smoking counterpart.
To summarize, empirical evidence is mixed and
contradictory with no clear evidence that smoking
enhances perceptions of attractiveness.
In order to fi ll this gap, we formed an experi-
ment which directly tested the applicability of
Zahavi’s Handicap principle to male cigarette
smoking on hypothesis and manipulation blind
participants (Czarna & van Leeuwen, under re-
view). We found that cigarette smoking does
not translate directly to increased attractiveness.
Instead, it seems to make a man appear slightly
less attractive and might also lower the degree
to which women simply like the man. Smoking
may enhance typical masculine characteristics
of a man, contributing to a more “macho” im-
age by making men seem more impulsive, po-
tentially aggressive, socially leading, bolder, and
also better short-term romantic partners. Even if
smoking does not signal increased attractiveness,
but only higher aptitude for being a short-term
partner, it would still be a valid clue for consider-
ing smoking to be an honest signal in terms of
the TSH (as it could enhance men’s reproductive
success). However, we found that the effects (the
perceptions) were partly dependent on the smok-
ing status of a perceiver. For example: only fe-
male smokers found male smokers to be better
possible short-term partners (for a more detailed
description of the results see: Czarna, van Leeu-
wen, under review). Such moderation effects
have not been theorized by Handicap Principle
and are not in line with it. According to TSH,
all females attend to honest signalling and none
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26 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
would advantageously deviate from preferring
high-signalling males (Hausken & Hirshleifer,
2004). We therefore argue that the results of our
experimental investigation do not support the
applicability of the Handicap Principle to smok-
ing. To summarize, 1) smoking does not signal
increased attractiveness nor generally higher ap-
titude for mating, 2) smoking has functions other
than signalling and those functions are primary,
3) there is no basis to claim that smoking has been
around long enough to gain any evolutionary sig-
nifi cance. Based on these fi ndings, we propose to
reject the hypothesis that smoking is an honest
signal in terms of the Handicap Principle.
Having dismissed Truthful Signalling Hy-
pothesis as a plausible explanation of smoking
as an honest signal, we present a study which is
partly atheoretical. As the smoking rates in Po-
land and in particular among Polish women are
on the rise (in 2011 alone the smoking rate among
Polish women grew by four percent), we believe
that it is an important social issue and searching
for possible explanations of why people start
smoking is a worthy enterprise. This time we
want to focus on more proximate “reasons” that
Poles have for entering a smoking habit, name-
ly explicit beliefs about the impact of cigarette
smoking on self-presentation. Research fi ndings
consistently show that cigarette smoking is one
factor involved in image portrayals (Mermel-
stein & The Tobacco Control Network Writing
Group, 1999).Yet for some people the ‘right im-
age’ may include smoking while for others not
smoking may be the key, and explicit beliefs as
well as a cultural and social backgrounds might
have crucial signifi cance here. Thus an important
step towards explaining self-presentational rea-
sons that Polish people have for smoking is to
fi nd their current specifi c beliefs about the im-
age gains of smoking. We found that on a more
implicit level female smokers found male smok-
ers to be more appealing than non-smokers in
the short-run. We want to know whether they are
aware of their implicit tendencies in that regard.
The present study is therefore complementary to
the described experimental explorations of more
implicit associations between cigarette smok-
ing and attractiveness as well as other features
(Czarna & van Leeuwen, under review). This
time we want to provide insights into smokers’
and non-smokers’ explicit beliefs about the im-
pact that the smoking status of an observed man
has on female judgement of his attributes. The
study has two objectives: one is to fi nd beliefs
about the impact of a man’s smoking on female
perceptions of him and to explore a possible role
of age, gender, and perceiver’s smoking status in
those cognitions; the other is to identify illusions
and misconceptions about this impact held by
smokers and non-smokers by comparing current
results with the results of our aforementioned ex-
perimental investigation.
The role of a perceiver’s smoking status in
cognitions involving smoking has long been
debated. Some studies (Fishbein, 1982; Jones &
Carroll, 1998, Lee, 1989) suggest that the smoking
status of participants does not affect their view of
a smoker, while others indicate an important role
of the status for explicit associations (Maison,
2004; Swanson, Rudman, & Greenwald, 2001).
Similarly, early studies using implicit measures
like the Implicit Association Test (IAT) found
that both smokers and non-smokers associate
smoking slightly more with negative than
positive valence (Maison, 2004; Swanson et al.,
2001). Greenwald (2003) suggested that implicit
measures such as the IAT should be able to play a
useful role, complementing self-report measures,
in assessing cognitions that relate to risky health
behaviour. Nevertheless, the affect involved
in maintaining smoking for habitual smokers
was not observed at the level of associations
that could be measured by the IAT. According
to Greenwald, it could conceivably require
yet another new measure type to gauge the
involvement of affect in the regulation of smoking
behaviour. However, a more recent investigation
utilizing a further personalized version of IAT
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27
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
showed a signifi cant difference in valence of
associations, dependent on participants’ smoking
status (De Houwer, Custers, & De Clercq, 2006).
It was similar to that found on a more explicit
level: positive implicit attitudes toward smoking
in smokers and more negative in non-smokers.
Though limited in scope (to beliefs concerning
female perceptions of male smokers), the current
study further investigates the role of a perceiver’s
smoking status and provides insight into the
specifi c content of explicit smoking-related
beliefs in Polish participants. It also shows to
what extent the implicit and explicit effects are
congruent.
Gender is an important factor in cognitions
related to risky, potentially addictive behaviours,
especially when they are driven by self-
presentational or mating motives (Hill, Durante,
2011). It infl uences risk perception: women
show on average lower comparative and absolute
risk perceptions than men, indicating greater
unrealistic optimism. One reason for this fi nding
might be a tendency of female smokers to use
a male smoker’s stereotype as a comparison
standard for estimating their own risk (Dohnke,
2006). A similar phenomenon likely underlies
the misperceptions of opposite-sex ‘refl ective’
normative preferences found in drinking standards
among college women (LaBrie et al., 2009). A
simple reason why women are closing the gender
gap in drinking and smoking rates might be their
impression management strategies and their
convictions. As one recent study suggests, women
who drink like men do not do so because they
want to be like a man (in terms of male power),
but rather because they want to be liked by men.
There is more evidence indicating that factors
driving female smoking are different from the
ones fueling male tobacco use (Thege, Stauder,
& Kopp, 2009),for example, life meaning proved
to be a signifi cant negative predictor of smoking
intensity for women, while it had no signifi cance
for men.
Age might also play an important role in
determining cognitions related to smoking. As
other studies have suggested (Friedman et al.,
1985; Chassin et al, 1981; Leary et al., 1994),
tobacco use seems to be perceived as attractive
particularly by young people.
In general, beliefs are important: positive rea-
sons for smoking, rationalizations or justifi ca-
tions to continue smoking, as well as disengage-
ment beliefs may discourage quitting (Chapman,
Wong, & Smith, 1993; Fidler & West, 2009;
Kleinjan, van den Eijnden, & Engels, 2009;
Martin & Leary, 2001; Yong & Borland, 2008).
Impact of personality variables and media ex-
posure on smoking are mediated through cogni-
tions (Conner, Grogan, Fry, Gough, & Higgins,
in press; Islam & Johnson, 2007). Certain beliefs
about smoking are associated with a smoking
status (Parkinson, Hammond, Fong, Borland,
Omar, Sirirassamee et al., 2009), certain explicit
convictions help predict non-smokers’ transition
to a smoking status with time (Grogan, Conner,
Fry, Gough, & Higgins, 2009), while others are
helpful in predicting smokers’ shift to abstinence
(Tipton, 1988).
The current study has two objectives. One
is to identify beliefs concerning the impact of
man’s smoking on female perceptions of him
and to explore a possible role of age, gender, and
perceiver’s smoking status in those cognitions.
The other goal is to indicate particular illusions
and misconceptions about positive outcomes of
cigarette smoking on male self-presentation in
the eyes of a female, which might encourage
smoking among Polish people. It is important to
understand what we refer to as an “illusion” or a
“misconception” in this research – it is a belief
about the impact of cigarette smoking which is
incongruent in direction with the impact observed
in our earlier experiment, specifi cally the overall
sample of hypothesis-blind and manipulation-
blind participants. Illusions are identifi ed by
researching beliefs about the impact of smoking
and comparing their content with the results of
our previous experimental verifi cation.
We hypothesize that beliefs about the
infl uence of cigarette smoking on male self-
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28 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
presentation will be dependent both on gender
and on smoking status, with women and smokers
expressing more positive beliefs about the impact
of cigarette smoking on male self-presentation.
We also hypothesize that the more people smoke,
the more positive beliefs about the impact they
will express. Based on the cognitive dissonance
theory (Festinger, 1957), we also expect that
there will be discrepancies not only between
smokers’ and non-smokers’ beliefs but also
between beliefs about the effects and the observed
effects that we found in our earlier experimental
examination. In other words, we expect that
people are partly unaware of the real impact of
cigarette smoking on men’s self-presentation in
the eyes of a female, with smokers in particular
underestimating its negative effect. However,
we do not have any specifi c hypotheses about
which beliefs in particular should show these
discrepancies.
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
The sample was composed of 396 volunteers
from unique IP addresses (198 female and 198
male; age M = 28.1, min = 17, max = 53, SD =
6.0) who responded to an online advertisement
post placed for free in the Polish general-interest
forum “po godzinach”, or the “forum for people
who want to relax and chill out” in late 2007
and early 2008. They completed an online
survey providing their opinions on the impact of
cigarette smoking on male self-presentation in
the eyes of a female. They then reported their
sex, age, and selected their smoking status as
“never-smoker”, “former smoker”, or “current
smoker”. For the purposes of statistical analysis,
data from former smokers and non-smokers
were collapsed into one category as their results
did not differ signifi cantly. Current smokers also
provided an approximate number of cigarettes
smoked per day. No payment was offered for
participation.
Within the sample, 27% smoked cigarettes
and 73% were non-smokers (of those 29%
admitted that they had been smokers in the
past) – these results matched well with the data
of a 2007 survey (Kanicka, Szpak, Drygas,
Rzeźnicki, & Kowalska, 2007) which showed
a 30.8% prevalence of smoking among Polish
public health students (26.4% among women)
and with several other studies (Brzostek, Kulig,
Kózka, & Malinowska; 2003; Public Opinion
Research Center, 2011; Krzych, 2004; Kuźnar,
Batura-Gabryel, & Młynarczyk, 2002; Pietryka-
Michałowska, Wdowiak, & Dreher, 2004). These
numbers also matched well with the estimated
number of Polish smokers provided by the
Public Opinion Research Center (PORC, 2011)
and World Health Organization (WHO Regional
Offi ce for Europe, 2009): 31% in 2007 and 32%
in 2009 for the total population, respectively. The
percentage of smokers among Polish males in
2011 is estimated as 35% and has been decreasing
since 1970s when it was 64%, while among
women it was 25% and has remained relatively
constant . In the present sample, 30% of men and
24% of women indicated that they were currently
smokers. The fact that male smokers might seem
to be slightly underrepresented in the current
sample may be due to age: the mean age in our
sample was 28 (with median = 27 the distribution
was very slightly positively skewed, g1 = 1.62,
and the majority of our sample was 20-30 years
old) and according to the PORC younger males
tend to smoke less. Proportions of male smokers
in their subgroup of 18-34 year old men was
about 33% (PORC, 2011). The proportions in our
sample match well with the ones found in a large
sample (N > 1189) examined by Public Opinion
Research Center (2011) and they generally
support representativeness of the sample.
Of those who smoked, 48% indicated that
they smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day. This
number is also close to the estimated number of
heavy smokers (people who smoke 20 or more
cigarettes a day) provided by the WHO.
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29
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
MEASURES
The participants read an open-ended sentence:
‘I think that a man smoking cigarettes is per-
ceived by women as………in comparison with
the same man but not smoking cigarettes.’ In the
blank space they gave their ratings of the impact
of smoking on a man’s features listed below.
The features were identical to the previous ex-
perimental study (Czarna & van Leeuwen, under
review) and were presented as follows: potential
aggressiveness (with 1 = not potentially aggres-
sive to 7 = potentially aggressive), capability to
hit a woman, kindness, physical health, strength,
impulsiveness, self-confi dence, intelligence, be-
ing respected by friends, leadership, popularity
among women, women’s willingness to date the
man, the man’s aptitude for being a good long-
term romantic partner/husband, his aptitude
for being a good short-term romantic partner,
and sexiness. These were all single item mea-
sures of the` characteristics with the same seven
answer options. All the features referred to the
impressions made by a smoker on women gener-
ally, not oneself.
RESULTS
Overview of the Analyses
The study had two goals. The fi rst goal was
to describe people’s beliefs about the impact of
male cigarette smoking on female perceptions
and to explore roles of gender, age, and smoking
status in those cognitions. In order to achieve this,
we fi rst reported the most general differences
in the tested beliefs between smoking and
non-smoking participants. We then submitted
the tested belief items to a factor analysis and
checked whether the perceptions of participants
are organized along any specifi c dimensions. The
results of our factor analyses were then used to
build composite scales. In a series of regression
analyses of these composite scales, we wanted
to verify the hypothesis that the number of
cigarettes smoked daily as well as gender, age,
and possible interactive terms of them can be
successfully used in predicting the extent to
which participants expressed certain beliefs.
The second goal was to identify illusions and
misconceptions from among beliefs expressed
by participants. In order to do this, we returned
to the original belief scales and fi rst determined
the content (the actual directions) of beliefs by
conducting t-tests against a reference mean
indicating “no impact” belief. Then, in a fi nal
analysis, we compare the results of the current
study with the results of previous experimental
investigations and identify actual illusions and
misconceptions.
Beliefs of Smokers versus Non-smokers
Smokers and non-smokers differed signifi -
cantly in the extent to which they fostered al-
most all of the tested beliefs (see Table 1), with
smokers expressing more optimistic beliefs in all
researched dimensions except for three: beliefs
that a male smoker appears to a woman as more
self-confi dent, more respected by colleagues,
and more socially leading than a non-smoker.
The latter (“socially leading”) was only margin-
ally insignifi cant.
Belief Dimensions
We sought to determine whether the par-
ticipants’ perceptions were organized along any
specifi c dimensions. We conducted a principal
components factor analysis of all the belief items
with a varimax rotation. It yielded a three-factor
solution (based on examination of the scree plot
as well as on Kaiser’s rule that only factors with
eigenvalues greater than 1 are extracted). The ei-
genvalue for Factor 1 was 5.65, Factor 2 – 2.8
and Factor 3 – 1.4. The fi rst factor accounted
for approximately 35%, second 18%, and third
9% of the variance in these items. Items loading
positively on the fi rst factor above .68” included:
self-confi dent, respected by colleagues, socially
leading, popular with woman, wanted by women
as a date, apt for being a good short-term ro-
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30 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and results of t-tests of means in smokers’ and non-smokers subgroups. Additionally, means signifi cantly
different from the value indicating the opinion “smoking has no impact” (value four) are marked with an asterisk. (Means smaller than four
imply belief that smoking decreases the rated quality; means higher than four indicate the belief that smoking enhances the rated quality.)
Belief that a man’s smoking makes him seem more: Non-smokers Smokers
M (SD) M (SD) t P Cohen’s d
Attractive 2.93*** 1.91 3.50*** 1.11 -2.90 0.004 0.33
Kind 3.20*** 1.38 3.77** 0.80 -4.03 0.000 0.46
Physically healthy 2.29*** 1.78 2.86*** 1.52 -2.95 0.003 0.33
Aggressive 4.64*** 1.35 4.21* 0.99 3.04 0.003 0.34
Capable of hitting a woman 4.42*** 1.20 4.05 0.84 2.93 0.004 0.33
Intelligent 3.56*** 1.15 4.12 0.82 -4.59 0.000 0.52
Strong 3.90 1.32 4.22* 0.99 -2.32 0.021 0.26
Impulsive 4.84*** 1.28 4.35*** 1.00 3.59 0.000 0.41
Self-confi dent 4.35*** 1.25 4.36*** 1.00 -0.02 0.987 0.00
Respected by friends 4.04 0.89 4.18** 0.64 -1.49 0.137 0.17
Socially leading 4.13* 1.05 4.32*** 0.88 -1.66 0.098 0.19
Popular among women 3.48*** 1.35 3.82* 0.79 -2.49 0.013 0.28
Wanted by women as a date 3.29*** 1.36 3.70*** 0.85 -2.93 0.004 0.33
Apt for being a good long-term Romantic partner or
a husband 2.68*** 1.46 3.59*** 0.92 -5.99 0.000 0.68
Apt for being a good short-term Romantic partner 3.99 1.47 4.40*** 0.92 -2.68 0.008 0.30
Sexy 3.26*** 1.78 4.21* 0.96 -5.24 0.000 0.59
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31
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
mantic partner, and sexy. Items loading neg-
atively on the second factor were potentially
aggressive, capable to hit a woman, and impul-
sive (all above .82”). The third factor was loaded
by attractive, kind, physically healthy, intelli-
gent, strong, and good possible long-term part-
ner or husband (all above .47”). The resulting
factors were examined for similarity in content
and were offered descriptors believed to refl ect
their overall theme: 1) “Cad” (borrowed from
Kruger, Fisher, & Jobling, 2003 to describe a
competitive, dominant, brave, and promiscuous
“dark hero”), 2) Poor impulse-control, 3) “Dad”
(“compassionate, industrious, monogamous,
proper hero”, Kruger, Fisher, & Jobling, 2003)
aspects of a man. The items loading each factor
were summed to form composite measures rep-
resenting those aspects. The alpha coeffi cients
for the composite measures were .87, .83, and
.79 respectively.
Predictors of the Beliefs
We then addressed the question whether the
extent to which participant embraced each of the
three belief dimensions (the composite measures)
could be predicted from the Number of cigarettes
smoked daily and the socio-demographic
variables of Gender and Age. We assumed it
was possible for infl uence of the independent
variables to be moderated, and therefore also
entered all interactive terms produced with
these variables into our analyses: Gender × Age,
Gender × Number of cigarettes, Age × Number
of cigarettes, and Gender × Age × Number of
cigarettes. We then ran three multiple regression
analyses in which all independent variables were
entered simultaneously. In Table 2, standardized
regression coeffi cients and standard errors for
the coeffi cients of each predictor are reported.
We found that all three composite dimensions
could be directly predicted from the Number
of cigarettes smoked daily. Namely, the extent
to which people cherished the beliefs that a
man’s smoking makes him appear to women
as possessing more “Cad” features, as well as
the extent to which they believed that smoking
enhanced his “Dad” features. Finally, the Number
of cigarettes smoked daily was a signifi cant
negative predictor of the belief that smoking
makes a man appear as having Poor impulse-
control. The more cigarettes people smoked per
day the stronger the beliefs about the positive
Table 2.Standardized regression coeffi cients for predictors of composite measures of beliefs.
Dependent variable Independent variables
Belief that a man’s
smoking makes him
seem more:
Number of
cigarettes
smoked
daily
Gender Age Gender ×
Age
Gender ×
Number
of ciga-
rettes
Age ×
Number
of ciga-
rettes
Gender
× Age ×
Number
of ciga-
rettes
Cad .15**(.05) .09† (.32) -.25*** (.06) .04 (.06) -.12* (.05) .01 (.01) .05 (.01)
Poor impulse-control -.19**(.02) -.05) (.16) .01 (.03) .03 (.03) .03 (.02) .07 (.00) .00 (.00)
Dad .23***(.04) .05 (.26) -.07 (.04) .02 (.04) -.08 (.04) -.07 (.00) .02 (.00)
Note: N = 396. Values in the table are standardized coeffi cients (i.e., beta weights) from a multiple regression analysis in
which tested independent variables were entered simultaneously. Standard errors for standardized regression coeffi cients
are presented in parentheses. Gender was coded as: -1 for women and 1 for men. ***p<.001; ** p<.01; * p<.05; †p <.10
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32 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
self-presentational impact of cigarette smoking
they held.
We also found that for the belief that smoking
enhanced the “Cad” dimension of a man in
female perception was predicted by Age and that
infl uence of Number of smoked cigarettes was
moderated by Gender. Using the MODPROBE
macro (Hayes & Matthes, 2009), we calculated
simple slopes (see Figure 1) for men and women
and found that the Number of cigarettes smoked
daily predicted the belief that smoking enhanced
a man’s “Cad” features only in women (ß = .255,
SE = .082, t = 3.106, p = .002), while in men
it had no signifi cant infl uence (ß = .046, SE =
.061, t =.748, p = .455). These results indicate
that those who most strongly cultivate the belief
that smoking enhances Cad features are younger
female smokers.
The Number of cigarettes smoked daily
variable used in the regression analyses was
skewed (M = 3.63, SD = 7.41, min = 0, max = 40,
g1 = 2.36) and any transformations of it (including
Cox-Box transformation) did not yield a normally
distributed variable. Accordingly, we also tested
the current associations using two alternative
strategies. In the fi rst, we replaced the Number of
cigarettes variable with a dichotomized variable
– Smoking status of the participant (participants
who smoked zero cigarettes had a score of zero
on this variable and participants who smoked at
least one cigarette per day had a score of one).
The results were perfectly congruent with those
reported above obtained using regression with
the original Number of cigarettes smoked daily
variable - we detected the same effects.
The second alternative strategy consisted in a
robust method based on an MM-type estimator
(Yohai, 1987). Results were exactly the same as
the results of ordinary linear regression analysis
in the case of the Cad variable, while in the
case of Dad features, apart from the reported
effects, we also found signifi cant interaction
effects of participant’s Gender with Number of
cigarettes smoked daily (ß = -.125, SE = .0415,
t =- 3.013, p = .003) and Age with Number of
cigarettes smoked daily (ß = -.060, SE = .022,
t =- 2.776, p = .003). Further inspection of the
interaction effects and simple slopes indicated
that the Number of cigarettes smoked daily had
a stronger effect on female beliefs that smoking
enhances Dad aspects of a man (ß = .432, SE
= .069, t =-6.297, p < .001) than on respective
male beliefs (ß =.182, SE = .045, t = 4.015,
p < .001). Independently, an increase in Age
served to decrease the effect created by the
Number of cigarettes smoked1.
Similarly, analysis of Poor impulse control
variable also yielded one additional interaction
effect apart from the one found in our ordinary
regression analysis: Age with Number of
cigarettes smoked daily, (ß = .057, SE = .024,
t = 2.353, p = .019). The older the participant,
the weaker the (negative) effect of Number
of cigarettes smoked daily on their belief that
smoking impacts impulse control.
1 We also founded that Age moderated the effect of Number of cigarettes smoked daily on Dad variable slightly more
strongly in women (ß = -.077, SE = .036, t = -2.139, p = .033), than in men (ß =- .044, SE = .025, t = -1.746, p = .082).
Figure 1. Simple slopes of the belief that smoking en-
hances a man’s Cad features for men and women on
Number of cigarettes smoked daily
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33
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
In order to better illustrate the effects of
our tested predictors on the three uncovered
dimensions of female perception, we con-
ducted a supplementary MANOVA of three
composite measures as repeated measures in
a 2 (Gender) × 2 (Participant’s smoking status)
design, with Age controlled as a covariate. The
analysis yielded signifi cant main effects of Age,
F(1,391) = 10.365, p = .001, ηp
2 = .026, Smoking
status, F(1,391) = 16.257, p < .001, ηp
2 = .040,
signifi cant effect of repeated measures, F(2,782)
= 13.333, p < .001, ηp
2 = .033, and signifi cant in-
teractive effects of Gender with Smoking status,
F(1,391) = 4.562, p = .033, ηp
2 = .012, Age with re-
peated measures, F(2,782) = 9.028, p < .001, ηp
2 =
.023, and Smoking status with repeated measures
F(2,782) = 20.920, p < .001, ηp
2 = .051. Smokers
held signifi cantly more positive beliefs about the
impact of smoking on all aspects of a man than
non-smokers. Closer examination of a marginally
insignifi cant (p = .08) interactive effect of Gender
× Smoking status × repeated measures showed that
women’s views were signifi cantly more polarized
than men due to their smoking status, especially
on the Cad and Dad dimensions. For means and
signifi cant contrasts see Figure 2.
nonsmoker
smoker
women
Dad Poor self-control Cad
decrease
-6
-4
-2
no impact (0)
2
4
increase
men
Dad Poor self-control Cad
Covariate means:
Age: 28,08
Figure 2. The belief that smoking impacts Cad, Dad, and Poor impulse-control aspects of a man as a function
of gender and own smoking status. [Zero is a value indicating the opinion “smoking has no impact”, less than
zero indicates the opinion “smoking decreases the impression”, more than zero indicates the opinion “smoking
increases the impression”]
Note: Means are presented with markers instead of bars and are connected with lines for the sake of presentation clarity. In
fact, there are no middle points between estimated means of each repeated measure. Means marked with different letters
differ signifi cantly at p < .05.
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34 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Table 3. Descriptive statistics and results of t-tests of means against the reference constant (value four) in all subgroups.
Belief that a man’s smoking makes him
seem more: Non-smokers Smokers
Wom e n
M (SD)
Men
M (SD)
Wom e n
M (SD)
Men
M (SD)
Attractive 2.69***(1.88) 3.19***(1.92) 3.74†(0.97) 3.30*** (1.18)
Kind 3.15*** (1.34) 3.25***(1.42) 3.81*(0.54) 3.73* (.95)
Physically healthy 2.20***(1.77) 2.38***(1.79) 3.06*** (1.59) 2.70***(1.45)
Aggressive 4.70***(1.34) 4.57***(1.37) 4.28† (0.99) 4.15 (0.99)
Capable of hitting a woman 4.54***(1.11) 4.28*(1.28) 4.13 (0.54) 3.98(1.02)
Intelligent 3.61***(1.02) 3.51***(1.29) 4.04 (0.72) 4.18 (0.89)
Strong 3.77*(1.20) 4.04(1.42) 4.13 (0.97) 4.30*(1.01)
Impulsive 4.87***(1.20) 4.80***(1.36) 4.26† (0.92) 4.42**(1.06)
Self-confi dent 4.29**(1.14) 4.42***(1.36) 4.51***(0.98) 4.23† (1.01)
Respected by friends 4.05 (0.71) 4.03 (1.36) 4.23* (0.67) 4.13 (0.62)
Socially leading 4.17* (0.96) 4.08(1.15) 4.47***(0.78) 4.20 (0.94)
Popular among women 3.32*** (1.33) 3.64**(1.36) 3.96 (0.78) 3.72** (0.78)
Wanted by women as a date 3.11***(1.33) 3.49***(1.37) 3.87 (0.95) 3.57***(0.74)
Apt for being a good long-term Romantic
partner or a husband 2.50***(1.48) 2.88***(1.42) 3.81 (0.90) 3.41***(0.91)
Apt for being a good short-term romantic
partner 3.80 (1.53) 4.20† (1.38) 4.30** (0.72) 4.48***(1.05)
Sexy 2.87***(1.82) 3.67*(1.64) 4.36* (2.07) 4.08 (0.85)
Note: Four is a value indicating the opinion “smoking has no impact”, values smaller than four imply belief that smoking decreases the rated
quality; values higher than four indicate the belief that smoking enhances the rated quality. ***p<.001; ** p<.01; * p<.05; †p <.10
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35
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
Actual Beliefs about Infl uence of Smoking
on Self-Presentation
The second goal of our study was to identify
illusions and misconceptions present among beliefs
expressed by participants. To do this, we fi rst needed
to know the absolute mean values of ratings within
each subgroup of participants. The reason for this
is that in order to identify actual beliefs we needed
to test whether mean values of the rated beliefs in
the subgroups diverged signifi cantly from value
“4”, which indicated a belief that “smoking has no
infl uence” on rated qualities.
We therefore ran a parallel series of t-tests
of means against the reference constant - value
“4” - on all beliefs in all subgroups. We found
that several means differed signifi cantly from the
value indicating “no infl uence” belief in all sub-
groups (see Table 3). Non-smoking women re-
vealed the most negative and female smokers the
most positive beliefs about outcomes of smoking
on self-presentation. The latter did not believe
(all ps > .05) in a negative impact of smoking on
impressions of potential aggressiveness, capabil-
ity to hit a woman, intelligence, impulsiveness,
popularity among woman, and women’s willing-
ness to date the man or marry him. They believed
that male smokers were perceived as signifi cantly
sexier and more respected by their friends, more
socially leading and self-confi dent, as well as be-
ing more desirable short-term partners than their
abstinent counterparts (all ps < .03).
Similarly, male smokers failed to believe that
smoking enhanced impressions of aggressiveness
or capability to use violence against women,
and that it decreased the impressions of their
intelligence or sexiness. They believed that they
were perceived as stronger, more impulsive, and
more desired for short-term mating than non-
smokers (ps < .03).
Illusions Identifi ed
Eventually, we compared the beliefs expressed
by each of the investigated subgroups with
fi ndings from earlier preliminary experimental
investigation with hypothesis and manipulation-
blind female participants (N = 154; Czarna & van
Leeuwen). The results of that experiment showed
that smoking can make a man seem signifi cantly
more impulsive, more aggressive, more capable
of hitting a woman, more self-confi dent,
possessing more leadership skills, and a better
possible short-term romantic partner but also
marginally less attractive, less nice, less healthy,
slightly less desired as a date, less intelligent,
and a worse candidate for a long-term romantic
partner than his non-smoking counterpart (all ps
≤ .05). It did not signifi cantly impact ratings of
perceived strength, being respected by colleagues,
popularity with women, and sexiness.
Comparison of those results with the results of
the present study enables us to identify illusions
among beliefs expressed by subgroups. Female
smokers’ beliefs that smoking does not affect
general impressions of man’s intelligence and
his apparent aptitude for being a good long-
term romantic partner seem to be illusions. So
are their beliefs that cigarette smoking enhances
impressions of a man’s sexiness (for an illustration
of gender and smoking status effects on sexiness
– see Figure 3). Similarly, male smokers’
convictions that smoking has no infl uence on
their image in terms of potential aggressiveness
or intelligence as well as their belief that smoking
enhances the impression of their strength, are
illusions par excellence.
On the other hand, non-smoking women and
men also expressed a few inaccurate beliefs. Con-
victions that smoking damages impressions of a
man’s strength, sexiness, his popularity with wom-
en or aptitude for being a good short-term roman-
tic partner, and failure to recognize that smoking
enhances female impressions of leadership skills
seem to be errors of excessive criticism.
DISCUSSION
The fi rst objective of the current study was
to describe people’s beliefs about the impact of
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36 Anna Czarna, Andrzej Szmajke
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
male cigarette smoking on female perceptions
and to explore roles of gender, age, and smoking
status in those cognitions. The second objective
was to indicate particular beliefs, illusions, and
misconceptions about positive self-presentational
outcomes of cigarette smoking. This was done
by researching beliefs about those outcomes
and comparing their content with the results of
previous experimental verifi cation.
The results show that people (men and
women, smokers and non-smokers) generally
tend to believe that smoking decreases a man’s
perceived aptitude for being a good long-term
partner or husband of a woman. The conviction
that smoking enhances a man’s attractiveness as
a short-term partner to women was dependent
on perceiver’s smoking status and gender, with
female smokers expressing the most optimistic
beliefs and female non-smokers the most
pessimistic. Results show that the extent to
which people engage in the positive beliefs was
predicted from the number of cigarettes smoked
by them daily, which is in line with hypotheses
based on the cognitive dissonance theory. We also
found an effect of growing criticism regarding the
impact of smoking with increasing age (slightly
more so in women).
Concerning the second objective of this study,
it appears that despite the fact that in many respects
Polish people are rather accurate, they, and
particularly smokers, maintain beliefs about the
self-presentational impact of cigarette smoking
that are not only biased but virtually illusory (as
is indicated by contrasting the content of their
beliefs with the results of experimental study
with hypothesis-blind participants). This fi nding
goes in line with previous studies that showed
positive explicit attitudes toward smoking while
implicit associations were mainly negative in
smokers (Maison, 2004; Swanson et al., 2001). In
the current study, particular illusions of smokers
in an overall sample are the beliefs in strength,
sexiness, and respect-enhancing infl uence of
smoking status on a man’s self-presentation. The
illusions appear to be gender-specifi c: Polish
female smokers believe that smoking enhances
man’s perceived sexiness and that it does not
damage his perceived intelligence and aptitude
for being a long-term partner (as well as generally
boosting his Cad qualities: Casanova-like or
alpha-male features like self-confi dence, respect
by colleagues, socially leadership, popularity with
woman, being wanted by women as a date, and
aptitude for being good short-term romantic
partner). Polish male smokers believe that
smoking makes them appear stronger to women.
These beliefs are relatively stronger linked to
women’s intensity of smoking (measured with
the number of cigarettes smoked per day),
possibly motivating their smoking. However, the
current research does not enable determination
of the direction of the relationships: the beliefs
could fuel smoking as well as be a product of
rationalization needed to justify own smoking.
Overestimation of the negative effects of
smoking on self-presentation found particularly
in female non-smokers might indicate growing
prejudice against smoking. In fact, due to
introduction of several anti-tobacco laws
smoking has been becoming less and less
socially supported and acceptable (Champan &
Freeman, 2008). It is also noteworthy that age
emerged as an important predictor of the belief
in enhancement of a man’s “Cad” features in the
eyes of a female. Nowadays, with the negative
infl uences of smoking on health being so widely
known and smoking increasingly socially
discouraged, smokers might feel “oppressed”
and prejudiced against. Our results might suggest
that smoking is becoming a means of resistance
against social norms among younger people.
However, this hypothesis is highly speculative
and requires further verifi cation.
Polish women expressed stronger, more
radical, and polarized views on male self-
presentational impact of smoking. One possible
reason for this could be that the survey asked for
opinions about the impact of smoking in men on
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37
Studia Psychologiczne, t. 49 (2011), z. 5, s. 23–40
Can cigarette smoking make a man appear sexier and stronger to women?
their (women’s) perceptions. Female non-smokers
overestimated the negative effects of smoking on
self-presentation while female smokers appeared
to be the most optimistic group in that regard,
expressing more optimistic beliefs than male
smokers and appearing most prone to certain
illusions. The latter believed that male smokers
were perceived as sexier and more respected
by their colleagues than their non-smoking
counterparts. This fi nding is complementary to
and in line with recent fi ndings of Hill and Durante
(2011) who showed that in self-presentational,
courtship, and mating contexts women tend to
strongly underestimate health risks linked to
certain hazardous behaviours. It is also possible
that female smokers compare themselves to a
typical male smoker, thereby mistaking illusory
self-presentational gains attributed to men for
their own. Such a mechanism has been previously
suggested by Dohnke (2006), who showed that
female smokers may underestimate their smoking-
related risks more than male smokers because they
compare their risk to the risk faced by a typical
male smoker. A similar interpretation was offered
by LaBrie and colleagues (2009) in their study
on the role of refl ective opposite-sex normative
preferences in alcohol use among college women.
However, this explanation is highly speculative
and would require empirical verifi cation.
Most of the discussed results have small to
medium effect sizes, and are therefore diffi cult
to detect. Such is the nature of the studied
phenomena. Despite the small magnitude of
effects, the large sample size used in this research
enhanced the statistical power of tools applied
in analyses and is a particular strength of the
presented study. The study was limited in scope
as it concerned people’s beliefs about the impact
that smoking in men has on female impressions
of men. Complementary research of relevant
effects in the opposite sex would be needed to
obtain a fuller picture of the relations.
Smoking status, gender, and age all turned
out to affect naďve theories about infl uence of
smoking on male self-presentation among Polish
people. Female smokers, especially younger ones,
appeared to hold the strongest misconceptions
in comparison with all other groups and those
misconceptions were stronger related to their
smoking behaviour. This result is somewhat
similar to that found in the Grogan, Conner, Fry,
Gough, and Higgins (2009) study, though an older
sample was utilized. It undoubtedly supports
their suggestion that there is a need for belief-
based preventative interventions that are age and
gender relevant. This is especially important as
the results of the latest PORC survey (PORC,
2011) show that in Poland smoking is on the rise
exclusively in females.
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