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This study examines whether people smoked more under the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) closure policies which trapped them at home with their families. In such circumstances, the pleasure from smoking could be more tempting than usual, but at the same time smokers' families are more likely to be victims of passive smoking. This study uses temporal and regional variations in policy strengths with data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker project (OxCGRT) to examine the impact of COVID-19 closure policies on smoking behaviors. With longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2018 and 2020, we find diminished smoking behaviors among Chinese male adults when the government implemented strict public health policies for the COVID-19 pandemic. People with more conscientiousness personality traits or stronger pro-family attitudes tend to smoke less as policy stringency increases. • This paper examines whether people smoke more under COVID-19 closure policies. • Policy stringency is the average OxCGRT score in the past 30 days before survey. • We find people smoke less when the index of policy stringency becomes higher. • Conscientious personality traits and pro-family attitudes are proxies of altruism. • The discouraging effects are stronger among people with higher family altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]