Ernest Dichter

Ernest Dichter: Defense

= Biography =

Ernest Dichter was a psychologist who counseled the tobacco companies on motivational research pre-1953. Dichter felt that people would continue smoking. "People would think if I give up cigarettes, there are a lot of other things I do--drink, over-eat, strive for success--that I ought to cut out too, however," Dichter thought many smokers were going through the process of reexamining their addiction to cigarettes. Dichter advised the tobacco companies to prove that they are on the side of the smoker (L. White, Merchants 1988). Dichter's consulting was described in a 1953 Business Week article (L. White, Merchants 1988).

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