Self-exempting Beliefs About Smoking and Health: Differences Between Smokers and Ex-smokers

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of self-exempting or cognitive dissonance-reducing beliefs about smoking and health. Such beliefs may hold important implications for the content and targeting of health promotion campaigns.

Methods: A survey of smokers and ex-smokers was conducted in western Sydney, Australia. Six hypotheses were tested.

Results: The principal findings were (1) that 27.9% of smokers and 42.1% of ex-smokers agreed that smokers were more likely than non-smokers to get five smoking-related diseases; (2) that for 11 of 14 beliefs tested, more smokers than ex-smokers agreed to a statistically significant degree; (3) that the median number of such beliefs agreed to by smokers was five, compared with three for ex-smokers; (4) that for only 5 of 14 beliefs was agreement expressed by more precontemplative smokers than smokers contemplating or taking action to quit; (5) that more than one in four smokers, despite agreeing that smokers are more likely than non-smokers to get five diseases, nonetheless maintain a set of self-exempting beliefs.

Conclusions: Fewer smokers than ex-smokers accept that smoking causes disease, and smokers also maintain more self-exempting beliefs. Becoming an ex-smoker appears to involve shedding such beliefs in addition to accepting information about the diseases caused by smoking.