College faculty/staff members (n=76) and college students (n=212) from a small liberal arts college in a suburban area in the Northeast United States participated in this study. Participants completed a survey consisting of items pertaining to features and determinants of college students' smoking that measured their feeling associated with smoking behavior and perceptions of college-age smokers. Questions regarding smoking history were used to determine the participants' smoking status of never, former, or current. Across these three smoking status groups, no significant group differences were found on ratings of attractiveness, contentment, and sophistication. Attractiveness was rated similarly by all groups; raters generally perceived smokers as unattractive. Likewise, smokers were viewed as generally unsophisticated and all groups perceived smokers as rarely appearing content. Overall ratings indicated that smokers were generally seen as rarely secure, intelligent, physically fit, or energized. On these variables, significant differences emerged among the three smoking status groups. However, although ratings of these characteristics were found to differ significantly across groups, no group gave these favorable characteristics a mean rating of rarely or higher, therefore indicating a pervasive negative view of smokers. On each of these four characteristics, current smokers gave the lowest ratings, which indicates that they hold the most negative views of smokers. Current and former smokers also gave more negative ratings of smokers' perceived confidence and perceived alertness than those who never smoked. In contrast, on the remaining five characteristics, current smokers gave more favorable ratings than did the other two groups. Current smokers perceived smokers as appearing significantly less anxious, less jittery, more mature, more adequate, and more considerate than did the other two smoking groups. (Contains 4 tables and 25 references.) (MKA)