Hypocrisy, dissonance and the self-regulation processes that improve health

This paper explores the use of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance for motivating changes in health. Hypocrisy occurs when people publicly advocate a health behavior and are then made mindful that they have not performed the target health behavior regularly in the past. The discrepancy poses a threat to their self-integrity, which hypocrites reduce by bringing their own health attitudes and behavior into line with the standards for good health. After examining the research that supports the use of hypocrisy for changing health attitudes and behavior, we finish by discussing how hypocrisy represents a powerful strategy for engaging the self-regulation processes that improve health.