Cigarette smoking is a behavior of individuals. Individuals begin to smoke, they become regular smokers, and they quit smoking. As we all recognize, however, this individual behavior occurs in a social and cultural context.If we wish to discourage the initiation of smoking and encourage the cessa tion of smoking once established, we must consider both the individual and social dimensions of this behavior. To date, most attention on smoking has been focused on the individual-his motivations and perceptions, his need for information, and his disease risks. In this paper we propose to review some of the ways in which social and cultural forces influence the initiation and establishment of smoking behavior as well as to suggest ways in which these same forces may be used to intervene and prevent smoking.