Gardner, B; Rebar, AL; Lally, P; (2019) A matter of habit: Recognizing the multiple roles of habit in health behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology , 24 (2) pp. 241-249. 10.1111/bjhp.12369.

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Abstract

Health psychology is witnessing a resurgence of interest in the concept of habit (Verplanken, 2018). Habit can be defined as a process whereby a cue automatically triggers an impulse to act, based on cue–action associations learned through repeated performance; habitual behaviour refers to action generated by this process (Gardner, 2015). Habit impulses typically translate into action efficiently, potentially without intention, awareness, or control (Bargh, 1994), and can dominate over conscious motivation in regulating behaviour (Gardner, de Bruijn, & Lally, 2011). Much interest in habit stems from its behaviour change implications. If habit can override intentions, then habit formation may sustain health‐promoting behaviours over time, even when people lose motivation (Rothman, Sheeran, & Wood, 2009). Conversely, disrupting an unhealthy habitual behaviour may require strategies that address cue dependency (Lally & Gardner, 2013). The concept of habit disruption taps into current interest in non‐conscious routes to behaviour change (Sheeran, Gollwitzer, & Bargh, 2013): recognizing the habitual nature of an unhealthy behaviour can inform the adoption of change strategies based on modifying environmental stimuli, which can be more feasible and effective than promoting consciously mediated change (Marteau, Hollands, & Fletcher, 2012). // Much research has explored the influence of habit on a multitude of health behaviours, including hand hygiene, medication adherence, dietary consumption, physical activity, and sun protection (for a review, see Gardner, 2015). Such studies have implicitly addressed similar underlying research questions, which can broadly be summarized as: ‘To what extent could Behaviour X be determined by habit?’ If a behaviour is shown to be, or have the potential to be, habitually enacted, this will have important implications for behaviour modification. Interventions that support adoption of that behaviour might fruitfully promote context‐consistent performance so that cue–response associations may develop (Lally, Van Jaarsveld, Potts, & Wardle, 2010), while interventions that aim to discontinue habitual behaviour might focus on dismantling such associations or blocking their enactment (Lally & Gardner, 2013). In this editorial, however, we argue that a more comprehensive understanding of habitual action requires moving beyond asking only to what extent a behaviour may be habitual, and towards exploring which aspects of a behaviour could be regulated by habit.

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