A review and analysis of the use of ‘habit’ in understanding, predicting and influencing health-related behaviour

Abstract

The term ‘habit’ is widely used to predict and explain behaviour. This paper examines use of the term in the context of health-related behaviour, and explores how the concept might be made more useful. A narrative review is presented, drawing on a scoping review of 136 empirical studies and 8 literature reviews undertaken to document usage of the term ‘habit’, and methods to measure it. A coherent definition of ‘habit’, and proposals for improved methods for studying it, were derived from findings. Definitions of ‘habit’ have varied in ways that are often implicit and not coherently linked with an underlying theory. A definition is proposed whereby habit is a process by which a stimulus generates an impulse to act as a result of a learned stimulus-response association. Habit-generated impulses may compete or combine with impulses and inhibitions arising from other sources, including conscious decision-making, to influence responses, and need not generate behaviour. Most research on habit is based on correlational studies using self-report measures. Adopting a coherent definition of ‘habit’, and a wider range of paradigms, designs and measures to study it, may accelerate progress in habit theory and application.

Non-conscious processes and dual-process theories in health psychology

“…However, although they tend to be operationalised similarly, they often use different terms when referring to the non-conscious (e.g., implicit, spontaneous, automatic, impulsive, fast, and heuristic) and conscious (e.g., deliberative, reflective, reasoned, planned, intentional, slow, and systematic) processes, and is at risk of becoming another jangle fallacy in psychology (Block, 1995;Hagger, 2014)! There are also closely related terms and constructs that relate to each processes with implicit beliefs, motives, dispositions, and habits recognised as synonymous with non-conscious processing and while social cognitions, judgements, and intentions reflecting with conscious processing (Gardner, 2015;Hagger, Rebar, Mullan, Lipp, & Chatzisarantis, 2015). This issue notwithstanding, the identification of both processes within single theories is not the main innovation of the new theories.…”

Using meta-analytic path analysis to test theoretical predictions in health behavior: An illustration based on meta-analyses of the theory of planned behavior

“…The inclusion of demographic factors as covariates that may affect relations in the model is also important and they can be included as predictors of each variable in path analyses to control for the effects. Controlling for the effects of past behavior is particularly important in testing theory predictions because it acts as a proxy measure of the extent to which individuals have made decisions to act in the past (Albarracín and Wyer, 2000;Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2014) and the extent to which the behavior is under habitual control (Gardner, 2015;Ouellette and Wood, 1998). In fact, the inclusion of past behavior in the prediction of prospectivelymeasured behavior in social cognitive theories models the stability of the behavior over time.…”

Right Here, Right Now: Situated Interventions to Change Consumer Habits

“…Consumers tend to buy the same brands, purchase similar amounts across shopping episodes, and consume similar types of food at mealtimes (for a discussion, see Wood and Neal 2009). Research has also shown that the strength of consumers' habits predicts various eating and drinking behaviors and the likelihood of taking public transport (Ji and Wood 2007;van't Riet et al 2011), alongside engagement in a range of health-related behaviors (for an overview, see Gardner, 2015). Furthermore, a recent study into the factors that predict the success of new products introduced to the consumer market showed that interference from existing habits accounts for 25% of instances where consumers failed to use new products (Labrecque et al 2016).…”