Smokers' self-categorization and the reduction of cognitive dissonance

Abstract

Sixty per cent of a sample of smokers who smoked between one and two packages of cigarettes per day considered themselves "moderate" smokers, while the remaining 40% considered themselves "heavy" smokers. This study compares the answers of these two groups of smokers to questions concerning the health risk of smoking. The results suggest that those respondents who assigned themselves to the lower-risk category, i.e., the "moderate", were more aware of the pathological, long-term effects of smoking than the smokers who classified themselves as "heavy" smokers. The smokers' tendency to minimize the extent of their smoking, as well as the avoidance of words which have threatening association for the smoker were interpreted as a means for reducing cognitive dissonance.