Cracks in the Wall: Habit Discontinuities as Vehicles for Behaviour Change

Verplanken, Bas; Roy, Deborah; Whitmarsh, Lorraine

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97529-0_11

Cited by 114 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…First, effective interventions will be required to change habitual behaviors in the households and community to create and promote new long-lasting healthy behaviors. In many ways, our behaviors are habitual, we do not undergo an elaborate reasoning ( Verplanken et al, 2018 ). It is very much about what we have learnt, these bits of information are stored in our memory and the more we perform a behavior, the more we associate to the information retrieved from our internal memory search resulting in our habitual behaviors ( Orbell and Verplanken, 2010 ; Ramkissoon and Nunkoo, 2012 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered individual and collective changes, people have had/are having to change their behaviors with the change in context. This is known as “habit discontinuity” providing a window of opportunity for behavior change ( Verplanken et al, 2018 ). Individuals’ habits may be temporarily blocked requiring alternative habits ( Jones and Ogilvie, 2012 ); one such example is having to be place confined to prevent the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individuals have had to re-orientate and find new ways of doing things. An important reason why people may change their behavior in a habit discontinuity context is as a response to fear fueling their need to reconsider some important goals and values (e.g., Verplanken et al, 2018 ), which for many in the current pandemic context is their health and safety.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

COVID-19 Place Confinement, Pro-Social, Pro-environmental Behaviors, and Residents’ Wellbeing: A New Conceptual Framework

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Residents’ wellbeing in the present COVID-19 global health crisis requires a deeper understanding to determine appropriate management strategies to promote sustainable behaviors and contribute to human and planetary health. Residents’ behavior can have a profound influence in contributing to personal and global community’s health by responding effectively to emergency strategies in disease outbreaks such as the Coronavirus. It is evident that an understanding of residents’ behavior(s) pre COVID-19 across fields have relied on over-simplistic models, many of which will need to be revisited. Our interaction with people and nature while respecting social distancing has profound positive impacts on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. The current health pandemic has called that people be confined in their homes across many nations as a means to control the spread of the virus and save lives. This calls for research exploring the mechanisms; this paper develops and proposes a conceptual framework suggesting that place confinement promotes pro-social and household pro-environmental behaviors which could become habitual and contribute further to our people’s and our planet’s health. The proposed model concerns socio-economically favored social sectors whose survival is not as threatened by the pandemic as the poor sectors where wellbeing (and mental health) are at high risk. Some evidence shows that human connectedness to place may contribute to engagement in desirable behaviors. Interaction with other members of the household can help create meanings leading to collective actions promoting psychological wellbeing. Promoting hygienic behaviors in the household (frequent hand washing) while at the same time being conscious not to keep the water flowing when not required would contribute to a range of benefits (health, financial, biospheric, altruistic) and promote wellbeing. Engaging in pro-social behaviors may result in positive effects on psychological wellbeing, reducing mental distress giving rise to a sense of attachment and belongingness, trust and overall life satisfaction. Engaging people in low-effort pro-environmental behavior to maintain some levels of physical activity and biological harmony with natural environmental settings (e.g., gardening) may help reduce anxiety and distress. This is the first study exploring the interplay of relationships between place confinement, pro-social behavior, household pro-environmental behaviors, place attachment as a multi-dimensional construct and presenting their relationships to residents’ wellbeing. Behavioral change interventions are proposed to promote lifestyle change for people’s wellbeing and broader societal benefits.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

COVID-19 Place Confinement, Pro-Social, Pro-environmental Behaviors, and Residents’ Wellbeing: A New Conceptual Framework

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Discontinuing exposure to cues disrupts habitual responding by removing opportunities for activation of habit impulses (Verplanken, Roy, & Whitmarsh, 2018). One study showed that, for habitual car commuters with high environmental concern, a residential relocation led to a decrease in car commuting, in line with their environmental values (Verplanken, Walker, Davis, & Jurasek, 2008).…”

Section: Deconstructing " Facilitating Conditions"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does habit weaken the relationship between intention and behaviour? Revisiting the habit‐intention interaction hypothesis

Gardner

Lally

Rebar

2020

Social & Personality Psych

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Habitual behaviours are elicited when a familiar context activates cue‐behaviour associations that have been learned through previous performance. A core hypothesis within habit theory is that, by virtue of its automaticity, habit weakens the impact of intention on action, such that in facilitating conditions, action will be guided more by habit than momentary intentions. This has led to recommendations that habit formation be harnessed as a mechanism for sustaining desirable behaviour over time, when people would otherwise relapse due to loss of motivation. This article reviews theory and evidence around the hypothesized interaction between habit and intention as determinants of behaviour. We first qualify the hypothesis by clarifying that it pertains only to determinants of the instigation of action, rather than execution. Next, drawing on a systematic review of 52 behaviour‐prediction studies, we highlight mixed empirical support for the interaction. We argue that ostensibly inconsistent findings can be reconciled by recognizing the distinction between the direction and strength of intention, and identifying the “facilitating conditions” that may determine the relative influence of habit and intention on behaviour. Evidence demonstrates that when self‐control is diminished, people act habitually regardless of intention direction or strength. When people possess self‐control, habits can help people to act on favourable but weakened intentions, but intentions that oppose habitual tendencies can override habitual influence. This has important implications for behaviour change: even if habit has formed, a minimal level of favourable conscious motivation may be required to sustain behaviours over time. Social psychology might fruitfully move beyond asking whether habit moderates the intention‐behaviour relationship, and instead probe how and in which conditions habits and intentions interact.

show abstract

“…Transitional phases are considered to be particularly important in taking in new information and breaking with norms and habits created in for instance the childhood home or in peer groups (Lenz 2001). Therefore, this age can also be of critical importance regarding everyday climate-crisis activism (Verplanken, Roy, and Whitmarsh 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

To trust or not to trust? Young people’s trust in climate change science and implications for climate change engagement

Ojala

2020

Children's Geographies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Cracks in the Wall: Habit Discontinuities as Vehicles for Behaviour Change

Cited by 114 publications

References 74 publications

COVID-19 Place Confinement, Pro-Social, Pro-environmental Behaviors, and Residents’ Wellbeing: A New Conceptual Framework

COVID-19 Place Confinement, Pro-Social, Pro-environmental Behaviors, and Residents’ Wellbeing: A New Conceptual Framework

Does habit weaken the relationship between intention and behaviour? Revisiting the habit‐intention interaction hypothesis

To trust or not to trust? Young people’s trust in climate change science and implications for climate change engagement

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About