It has previously been argued that social support mechanisms in collectivistic societies make it more likely that
a person will stop smoking [26, 27] based on ndings that social support (supportive counselors) can help people to adhere to decisions to quit smoking [13]. We nd that, to the contrary, cessation of smoking occurs more slowly in
collectivistic societies. Our model suggests that this is so because social inertia will inhibit decisions to stop smoking
more strongly in collectivistic societies than in individualistic societies.