> Until you've had your bike stolen (or known people who have), you just can't imagine it happening with clarity.
It's _very_ common for cyclists to use bike locks even if they personally haven't suffered a bike theft.
It is also common for cyclists to use cable locks until the first time their bike is stolen.
And then they learn that cable locks do not work.
D-locks don't work either, since thieves discovered battery-powered angle grinders
If cycling is to be a significant part of the future of transport, we need to solve bike theft.
On the other hand it might take multiple thefts to learn the lesson for some people. When I was a kid/teenager, someone stole my bike and the police found it(yay small town) abandoned several blocks away. Of course it took my sister and brother-in-law pretending to steal it for me to really learn.
Our house was burgled a few years back and it certainly served as a wake up call. My room was untouched somehow whilst my roommates gaming pc and anything else electronic was taken.
At the time my backups were all sitting next to my computer, encrypted but physically present. That day I started to appreciate the value of offsite backups for personal data and adjusted my strategy
Until you've had your bike stolen (or known people who have), you just can't imagine it happening with clarity.
Therefore I don't really think it's cognitive dissonance as much as lack of imagination.
Dissonance would be if there were break-in attempts that he ignored. Or if he got threats and did nothing.
He didn't actually have concrete reason to believe that he was a target.