Public health organizations are increasingly relying on social media to disseminatehealth-related information and encourage positive health behavior changes among hard-to-reach young people. However, there is limited evidence on how the various heuristic cues brought about by the different technological affordances of social media may influence the processing and interpretation of persuasive health messages distributed through these platforms and their downstream influences, especially in the context of graphic smoking warnings (GHW). Informed by the MAIN model, this study assesses the effects of two agency cues, identity and bandwagon cues, in GHWs on non-smokers’ message perceptions, attitudes and behavioral intentions, and examines the potential mediating roles of attention and discrete negative emotions. Participants (n = 223) viewed four Facebook post mock-ups, varying exemplars’ racial identities as well as the number of “Likes”, with their eye-tracking and self-report data collected. This study sheds light on the role of social identification and endorsement among young non-smokers’ attitudes and intentions toward smoking in computer-mediated communication.
