Dissonant addicts

These people with intermediate willpower are dissonant addicts. When they are in the high-consumption mode, they prefer continued high consumption, but still they know that life would have been better (according to their own utility calculus) if they had been in the low-consumption mode. They can honestly say that they would not relapse if they somehow managed to get out of the high-consumption mode. 

Exponential discounters are dynamically consistent. Hence, rational, dissonant addicts in the high-consumption mode will evaluate contin-... 

This implies that dissonant addicts with hyperbolic discounting plus willpower may go to bed with the firm intention of not drinking tomorrow nevertheless, they will end up drinking again the next day. Even consonant addicts may occasionally experience doubts as to whether they really wish to go on with their heavy-consumption lifestyle. Thus, the distinction between consonant and dissonant addicts is not as clear-cut within the Ainsliean framework as within the dynamically consistent framework of the rational consumer. 

A particularly important set of beliefs is the idea that a given substance is addictive. Once a behavioral pattern is conceptualized as an addiction, with the concomitant causal beliefs, it may change dramatically. An especially important belief is that addiction is, if not irresistible, at least very hard to resist, almost amounting to compulsive desire. Hence, to the causal beliefs about the effects of drug taking on the addict s body and socioeconomic status, we must add causa) beliefs about the effect of addiction on his will—specifically, on the ability to quit. Two opposite beliefs about this effect may have the same impact on behavior. Some addicts use their (usually self-deceptive) belief that they can quit at any time as an excuse for not quitting. Others use their (equally self-deceptive) belief that they are unable to quit as an excuse for not quitting. The belief that one is addicted may reinforce the addiction by the mechanism of dissonance reduction ... 

Counter-altitudinal behaviour (e.g., continued smoking in spite of acknowledgement of dangers to health) is not necessarily dissonance-arousing for individuals who see their behaviour as beyond their voluntary control (e.g., who say "1 can t help myself"), or who selectively reduce their self-esteem (e.g., who say "1 haven t the will-power"). In terms of this interpretation, "dissonant" smokers are not in a state of unresolved dissonance, once they label themselves as addicted. It may well be, then, that many smokers are motivated to see themselves as addicts. 

Eiser, Richard, Stephen Sutton, and Mallory Weber. 1978. " Consonant and Dissonant Smokers and the Self-Attribution of Addiction." Addictive Behaviors 3 99-106. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ , ]

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