Cognitive Dissonance Theory

'I am a smoker'.
'Smoking causes cancer'.

Dissonant cognitions are beliefs we have which are incongruent with each other. 'I am a smoker' is not rational with 'smoking causes cancer'.

Leon Festinger proposed Cognitive Dissonance Theory stating that when we are aware of consonant cognitions, we feel good. When we happen to encounter dissonant cognitions, we feel bad and develop unpleasant emotions which in turn drives us to do something to change our state.

Something to change our state? What is it exactly you might ask. It is to reduce the dissonance either by directly changing our cognitions, or adding more consonant cognitions.

Changing our cognitions:
So in order to make things right, I could simply stop smoking which leads to 'I do not smoke', and 'smoking causes cancer'. Now both cognitions are consonant.

Or perhaps everytime I look at the 'horrible' images on the cigarette boxes, I compare all the smokers I know and tell myself that its highly unlikely to happen to me.
I would then use the cognition 'Smoking will not cause me to have ugly teeth and a rotten mouth', to override 'smoking causes cancer'. This would be consonant with 'I am a smoker'.

Adding more consonant cognitions:
So now my cognitions are -
'Smoking will not cause me to have ugly teeth and a rotten mouth', and
'I am a smoker'.

Maybe I still do not feel comfortable with these two cognitions as dissonance arise.
I would then add the cognition, 'The mouth images on the cigarette boxes belong to people who do not brush their teeth'.
*Ahh* Now I feel better. Smoking seems much more rational now!

LASTLY...
Festinger also proposed another method of reducing dissonance. It is to reduce the importance of one of the dissonant cognitions and increase the importance of one of the consonant cognitions.

>> So I am a smoker, and smoking causes cancer. Smoking also causes me to have an ugly mouth. Oh well, none the less I still love the pleasures of smoking so I might as well have a ball of a time while I'm still alive! <<

Here the two cognitions 'smoking causes cancer' and 'smoking causes me to have an ugly mouth' is reduced, whereas the importance of the cognition 'Smoking is pleasurable' is increased.



p.s.
I do not smoke.