Smokers quitting under the influence of friends and family

For years, public health experts worried about peer pressure causing people to start smoking, but now it seems the tide has turned.

Smokers are quitting under the influence of friends and family.

In the movies, smoking remains cool and mysterious, something that sets an enigmatic character apart from the others.

In real life, Harvard researchers find that smoking does set people apart, but not in good ways.

They studied social networking among more than 12,000 interconnected adults, spouses, siblings, friends, neighbors and co-workers, who were followed for 30 years.

Results showed that smokers tended to be on the outskirts of social circles.

Researchers theorize that smokers were forced to the periphery by social pressure as people started to kick the habit.

When one spouse quit, the other spouse’s odds of smoking decreased by 67 percent.

Among friends, the effect was 36 percent, and for siblings, it was 25 percent.

Even co-workers in small offices were more likely to quit together and those who stopped smoking widened their social circles, leaving smokers to mingle mostly with each other.

Experts worry that the effect has created islands of smokers who are not being helped, which potentially explains why smoking rates have stalled in the last few years.