[Dissonance] Peretti-Watel, Halfen, & Grémy (2007)

[dissonance at psychologie-sociale.org]

*Référence Complète :*
Peretti-Watel, P., Halfen, S., & Grémy, I. (2007). Risk denial about 
smoking hazards and readiness to quit among French smokers: An 
exploratory study. /Addictive Behaviors, 32/(2), 377-383.

*Résumé :*

In most developed countries, a significant part of the population is 
still smoking despite comprehensive tobacco control policies. Among 
other reasons, many smokers may endorse self-exempting beliefs that help 
them to deny the smoking hazards for themselves. We investigated the 
relationship between smokers' risk denial and their readiness to quit 
making use of a French cross-sectional survey conducted in the Paris 
Ile-de-France Region (/N/ = 939 smokers). Self-exempting beliefs were 
quite widespread among participants and two of them were significant 
predictors of a low readiness to quit: considering that one's cigarette 
consumption is too low to be harmful and believing that one's way of 
smoking can protect from smoking-related diseases. Future tobacco 
control messages and interventions should specifically address these 
self-exempting beliefs that reduce smokers' cognitive dissonance and 
then inhibit their willingness to quit.

*Keywords: *
Smoking cessation; Intention to quit; Beliefs; Risk denial; France

*Contact :*
*Patrick Peretti-Watel, *Centre for Disease Control of South-Eastern 
France, 23 rue Stanislas Torrents, 13006 Marseilles, France
National Health and Medical Research Institute (INSERM), Research Unit 
379, Marseilles, France
French National Cancer Institute (INCA), 52 avenue André Morizet 92513 
Boulogne Billancourt Cedex, France
peretti at marseille.inserm.fr