Summary.Four semantic differential questionnaires were employed to investigate the ways in which boys aged 11–15 perceive smoking. Each questionnaire consisted of 19 bi‐polar scales against which the boys had to rate the following four concepts: ‘the boy smoker’; ‘the boy non‐smoker’; ‘the self’; and ‘the ideal self.’ 5,601 boys completed the four questionnaires.Factor analysis of the intercorrelations between the scales showed that the boys were rating the concepts largely in terms of three basic dimensions: ‘Educational Success,’ ‘Toughness' and ‘Precocity.’ Toughness which boys associate with smoking appears to provide an incentive both for non‐smokers to take up smoking and for smokers to continue to smoke. Smokers also associate smoking with Precocity, an attribute which they think non‐smokers lack. Although the smokers' Precocity does not have much attraction for non‐smokers the value smokers place on it provides an incentive for them to go on smoking. The one attribute non‐smokers have which is attractive to smokers, even though they feel they lack it, is Educational Success. This last finding casts doubt on the theory that smokers have identified themselves with an out‐of‐school youth culture, which is completely antagonistic to