Smoker networks and the "typical smoker": a prospective analysis of smoking cessation.

Perceptions of the typical smoker (i.e., prototype) were assessed in a sample of 174 adult smokers when they first joined a cessation clinic and were used to predict smoking status at 6-month follow-up. As predicted, consistent with a prototype-based model of health risk behavior (F. X. Gibbons & M. Gerrard, 1995, in press), smokers with more favorable perceptions were more likely to have relapsed at follow-up. Also as predicted, this prospective effect was moderated by smokers' social networks: Prototypes did not predict status among those who had a lot of friends and family members who smoked, suggesting that these other smokers were inhibiting smokers' attempts to distance themselves psychologically from the prototype. Implications of the results for interventions that use prototypes to discourage smoking are discussed.