Tickle added in a telephone interview. The researchers questioned more than 6,000 students in rural secondary schools in New England about their smoking habits and opinions and their favorite film stars. They found that teenagers whose top actors used tobacco on screen were more likely to smoke than students whose idols selected non-smoking roles. Tickle said in a study published in the journal Tobacco Control. According to the researchers most American teenagers see an average of two movies a week.
Smoking is also common in films deemed suitable for young audiences.
The students named 43 stars, ranging from Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan to Sean Connery and Whoopi Goldberg, as their favorite stars. Forty-two percent of the stars portrayed smoking as a character trait in one or more films.