{"id":4805,"date":"2019-12-03T20:20:21","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T00:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=4805"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:47:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T20:47:30","slug":"negative-role-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative Role Models: Why Their Habits Are Contagious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What effect do negative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-role-models\/\">role models<\/a> have on kids? How do &#8220;permission-givers&#8221; affect children and teens when it comes to smoking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll explore why negative role models can be so influential. Understanding the mechanisms behind this influence may be the first step toward change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Law of the Few and <\/strong>Negative Role Models<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-law-of-the-few\/\">Law of the Few<\/a> undoubtedly played a part in tipping the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/teen-smoking-2-solutions-to-stop-the-epidemic\/\">teen smoking<\/a> epidemic. Teen smoking is a prime example of how <strong>Salesmen can make a behavior contagious by playing the role (sometimes inadvertently) of permission-givers for something as harmful as smoking.<\/strong> A permission-giver is a negative role model. In spite of anti-smoking messaging insisting that the habit is unattractive and uncool, many people have deep-seated associations of cigarettes with sophistication. Often, people think of a smoker from their childhood who exuded a sort of carefree coolness. Knowingly or not, those smokers become permission-givers, or negative role models.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The archetype of smokers as cool rebels is actually no coincidence, as research shows that there are common personality traits among smokers that include extroversion, sociability, sexual precocity, impulsivity, risk-taking, defiance, and indifference to the opinions of others. Many of these are the kinds of traits that make a person seem impossibly cool, especially to teenagers.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smokers aren\u2019t cool <em>because <\/em>they smoke, but rather smoke because they are cool; the traits that make these teens prone to smoking happen to be the same traits that make them seem cool to peers. But no matter the reasoning, the association \u2014 and its power to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-influence-others\/\">influence others<\/a> to smoke \u2014 remains the same. People\u2019s memories of sophisticated family members, older friends, or celebrities <strong>(permission-givers) smoking make them want to emulate their cool by taking up the habit as well, overpowering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/healthcare-data\/\">health information<\/a> and logical self-preservation.<\/strong>&nbsp;All of these permission-givers are negative role models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example: <\/strong>Negative Role Models<strong> and Suicide<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Permission-givers played a role in a teen suicide epidemic in the small island nation of Micronesia. The epidemic seemed to have tipped with the well-publicized suicide of a teenage boy named R., who was a member of one of the island\u2019s wealthiest families. Stuck in a love triangle with two women \u2014 one of whom he had a child with \u2014 he ultimately hung himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>R. became the permission giver (or negative role model) to other adolescent boys who committed suicide, almost always by hanging, as a result of similar romantic and family strife (most of which was fairly trivial and typical of the teen experience). The concept of using suicide as an expression of wounded pride and sadness (in much milder forms than the despair we typically associate with suicide) became epidemic; in the early 1960s there were virtually no suicides in Micronesia, but by the late 1980s the country had more suicides per capita than anywhere in the world.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Stickiness Factor and the Addiction Threshold&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Permission-givers, or negative role models, may inspire people to try cigarettes, but the stickiness of the habit itself determines whether they will continue smoking long term. Smoking isn\u2019t dangerous when you try it just once or twice; it becomes harmful the more you smoke and the longer you maintain the habit.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nicotine is addictive only to some people, and among those people it is addictive to different degrees, likely based on their genetic tolerance for nicotine. Research shows that your experience with your first cigarette is the biggest single factor in whether or not you become a habitual smoker; people who are turned off immediately likely have little to no tolerance for the nicotine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What effect do negative role models have on kids? How do &#8220;permission-givers&#8221; affect children and teens when it comes to smoking? We&#8217;ll explore why negative role models can be so influential. Understanding the mechanisms behind this influence may be the first step toward change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-4805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-tipping-point","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Negative Role Models: Why Their Habits Are Contagious - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What effect do negative role models have? How do &quot;permission-givers&quot; affect teens when it comes to smoking? Learn why role models are so influential.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Negative Role Models: Why Their Habits Are Contagious\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What effect do negative role models have? How do &quot;permission-givers&quot; affect teens when it comes to smoking? Learn why role models are so influential.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-04T00:20:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-11T20:47:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/tipping-point-role-model.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"513\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"517\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amanda Penn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01b0e4c9ddb993e51d03808839d538b0\"},\"headline\":\"Negative Role Models: Why Their Habits Are Contagious\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-04T00:20:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T20:47:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\"},\"wordCount\":607,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/tipping-point-role-model.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Tipping Point\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/\",\"name\":\"Negative Role Models: Why Their Habits Are Contagious - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/negative-role-models\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/tipping-point-role-model.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-04T00:20:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T20:47:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"What effect do negative role models have? 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