Professor Nicholas Christakis and his team have put forward the hypothesis that ending a smoking habit can be contagious.
Between 1971 and 2003, 12 067 smokers participated in a study. Researchers at Harvard University were particularly interested in the social interactions of smokers among their coworkers, families, friends and neighbours.
According to their observations, kicking the habit is not just an individual accomplishment, but rather something that can snowball among groups of people.
Professor Christakis explained, "Your smoking behavior depends upon not just the smoking behavior of the people you know, but also the people who they know Anecdotally, we hear people say they quit smoking because their spouse or friend quit."
One thing is certain, the perception of smokers has changed drastically in recent years. Today, smoking is no longer considered to be socially acceptable. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.