Principal investigator Shu-Hong Zhu used data from three previous tobacco studies conducted in California. Zhu's team looked at smokers who are recent immigrants to California from China and Korea, where smoking rates are higher and it is widely accepted.

The study, published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, found California immigrants have a smoking cessation rate much higher than their counterparts in their native countries, where about two-thirds of all men smoke.

The researchers attribute difference to the difference in social norms -- more than 82 percent of Chinese and Korean immigrant smokers in California reported that they were familiar with the state's anti-smoking campaigns. This familiarity shows an awareness of the new social norm, Zhu said.

"In China, the quit rate is low because a very low proportion of smokers try to quit each year. In California, a very high proportion of Chinese smokers try to quit each year," Shu said in a statement. "More tries means more success."