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Better dynamic balance and aerobic endurance predicted enhanced processing speed, inhibition and working memory in older adults, with these last two domains considered components of executive function. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 108-115.

Water drinking behaviour is under-researched despite the prevalence and adverse health consequences of underhydration. We conducted a qualitative exploration into the motivational processes that affect water drinking. We interviewed and analysed data from 60 participants using thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that participants form and maintain situated water drinking habits, so that within certain situations they report regularly drinking water. However, the way participants situated their water drinking had consequences on the amount and consistency of their water intake. Participants who situated their water intake in one key situation (e.g., drinking water during their work routine), had low and inconsistent intake when they left this situation. Some situations happened so infrequently during the day (e.g., drinking before bed) that participants’ daily water intake was low. Many participants reported drinking water in reaction to thirst cues, but these were easily suppressed or went unnoticed, so that water drinking was inconsistent. Participants who saw drinking water as part of their self-identity had consistent and high water intake across a variety of internal and external situations. Few participants perceived water as positive or understood the importance of hydration. Many participants also lacked insight into strategies to increase water intake, which lead to ineffective attempts at behavioural change. Participants’ mentions of cues of dehydration and their responses to a urine colour chart further suggested that many participants were possibly underhydrated. Our findings suggest that health interventions and practitioners attempting to increase water intake need to increase knowledge about the importance of hydration, and encourage individuals to develop effective situated water drinking habits.

Reducing meat and dairy intake is necessary to mitigate the effects of animal agriculture on global warming. Yet, doing so may be challenging. How can sustainably motivated individuals’ transition into a plant-based diet be facilitated? We conducted a pre-registered qualitative survey with 80 participants to explore their experiences of reduction, the role of self-control, habits, identity, and social norms in shaping these experiences. We analysed the data using thematic analysis and generated three themes. Theme 1 captures participants’ incompatible short-term and long-term motivations, which led to experiences of conflict. Managing conflict required self-control. Theme 2 describes aspects of food and social environment, such as social feedback, and food availability, cost, and appeal, that hindered or supported participants’ attempts at reducing meat and dairy intake. Furthermore, most reducers did not want to be identified with various dietary groups, particularly with flexitarians. Theme 3 captures strategies, varying in efforts, that helped participants overcome internal conflicts or challenges from the food and social environment. Examples include avoiding choice situations, or behavioural substitution, which facilitated behaviour maintenance through small and comfortable changes that fit with participants’ liking, taste, and preferences. Our findings highlight the need to temper negative social feedback and introduce more favourable social norms to support meat and dairy reduction. Interventions that aim to support the transition to sustainable eating also need to consider the identity of consumers.

Many of the key problems humans are facing today result from desires, habits, and social norms impeding behaviour change. Here, we apply a grounded cognition perspective to these phenomena, suggesting that simulating the consequences of one’s actions plays a key role in them. We first describe the grounded cognition theory of desire and motivated behaviour, and present evidence on how consumption and reward simulations underlie people’s representation of appetitive stimuli and guide motivated behaviour. Then, we discuss how the theory can be used to understand the effects of habits, social norms, and various self-regulation strategies. We suggest conceptualising behaviour change as overcoming the simulations of hedonic and social reward that favour existing habits and behaviours, and as updating situated representations of motivated behaviours in their social context. We discuss how this perspective can help us understand the challenges that people experience in initiating and repeating new behaviours, and in high-impact decision making in the face of the status quo. In order to move beyond the socially sanctioned, habitual behaviours that currently threaten human and planetary health, we must understand what motivates them, and how this motivation can be harnessed for the greater good.