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A latest study has revealed that smokers tend to quit smoking in groups and seldom is it an individual decision. Giving up smoking is hence contagious. The study, by Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego has revealed that smoking is not just bad for one’s physical health but is also bad for one’s social health.
The finding means that people help many more than just themselves by quitting as it can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit. The researchers found that groups of friends, co-workers and relatives often stop smoking in clusters. According to the US centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of Americans who smoked dropped to 20.8 percent from 41.9 percent between 1965 and 2006. In the study it was found that many quit at the same time as the other people they new.
Nicholas Christakis remarked that in a very fundamental way, decision to quit smoking in humans are like decisions to fly left or right in birds in a flock, the individual doesn’t decide alone. According to the study, a smoker was 67 percent more likely to quit if a spouse did so, 36 percent more likely if a friend did so, and 25 percent more likely if a sibling did so. Dr. Martin Hagger of the University of Nottingham stated that if one is trying to give up smoking, then it shouldn’t be kept a secret; instead the person should try and recruit people from their own social network to attain a sense of group identity.
