Evidence of peer and status effects

The tobacco advertisers have known this for years, but now the rest of us have the evidence...
"- The more an adolescent perceived that successful and elite people smoke cigarettes, the more likely that adolescent was to smoke.
- The more strongly an adolescent perceived that his or her parents or peers disapproved of smoking, the less likely that adolescent was to smoke.
- The more an adolescent overestimated the percentage of smokers in the general population, the more likely that adolescent was to smoke. "
It supports more generally the intuitions that we are indeed strongly influenced by our peers, our perceptions of 'norms' and the behaviour of those we deem to have status. It's mimesis. It's human nature. It's a mechanism of the propagation of sin.
ScienceDaily: How Normal Is Smoking? Teens Don't Know, But Their Guesses Affect Their Habits: