,~3 Pergamon Pre~s Ltd 1979 Prinled ill Great Bril~tin SMOKERS ' SELF-CATEGORIZAT ION AND THE

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 ~ o con-sidered 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 hat those respondents who assigned themselves to the lower-risk category, i.e., the "moderate", were more aware of the pathological, ong-term effects of smoking than the smokers who classified them-selves 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. When some persistent behavior on the part of an individual conflicts with his knowledge that the behavior is inappropriate or even dangerous, a state of cognitive dissonance is created (Festinger, 1957). One way of reducing the dissonance is to change the behavior itself. But the change may be difficult, or painful, or it may require a stronger effort than one is willing to exert. If the behavior cannot be changed, then perhaps the perception of the behavior can be altered in a way that reduces the dissonance