Editing Cognitive dissonance (section)

===Smoking===
The study ''Patterns of Cognitive Dissonance-reducing Beliefs Among Smokers: A Longitudinal Analysis from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey'' (2012) indicated that smokers use justification beliefs to reduce their cognitive dissonance about [[smoking tobacco]] and the negative consequences of smoking it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.libcblog.nl/articles/facing-the-facts-the-cognitive-dissonance-behind-smoking|title=LIBC Blog – Articles – Facing the facts: The cognitive dissonance behind smoking|website=www.libcblog.nl|date=16 June 2015 |language=en|access-date=2019-10-17}}</ref>

# Continuing smokers (Smoking and no attempt to quit since the previous round of study)
# Successful quitters (Quit during the study and did not use tobacco from the time of the previous round of study)
# Failed quitters (Quit during the study, but relapsed to smoking at the time of the study)

To reduce cognitive dissonance, the participant smokers adjusted their beliefs to correspond with their actions:

# Functional beliefs ("Smoking calms me down when I am stressed or upset."; "Smoking helps me concentrate better."; "Smoking is an important part of my life."; and "Smoking makes it easier for me to [[socialize]].")
# Risk-minimizing beliefs ("The [[Hierarchy of evidence|medical evidence]] that smoking is harmful is exaggerated."; "One has to die of something, so why not enjoy yourself and smoke?"; and "Smoking is no more risky than many other things people do.")<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Fotuhi O, Fong GT, Zanna MP, Borland R, Yong HH, Cummings KM | title = Patterns of cognitive dissonance-reducing beliefs among smokers: a longitudinal analysis from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey | journal = Tobacco Control | volume = 22 | issue = 1 | pages = 52–58 | date = January 2013 | pmid = 22218426 | pmc = 4009366 | doi = 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050139 }}</ref>