Gardner, B;
Corbridge, S;
McGowan, L;
(2015)
Do habits always override intentions? Pitting unhealthy snacking habits against snack-avoidance intentions.
BMC Psychology
, 3
, Article 8. 10.1186/s40359-015-0065-4.
Preview |
Text
Gardner et al. Do habits always override intentions.pdf Download (465kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Background Habit is defined as a process whereby an impulse towards behaviour is automatically initiated upon encountering a setting in which the behaviour has been performed in the past. A central tenet of habit theory is that habit overrides intentional tendencies in directing behaviour, such that as habit strength increases, intention becomes less predictive of behaviour. Yet, evidence of this effect has been methodologically limited by modelling the impact of positively-correlated habits and intentions. This study sought to test the effect of habits for unhealthy snacking on the relationship between intentions to avoid unhealthy snacks and snack intake. Methods Methods were chosen to match those used in studies that have shown habit-intention interactions. 239 adults completed valid and reliable measures of habitual snacking and intention to avoid snacking at baseline, and a self-report measure of snack intake two weeks later. Data were analysed using multiple regression. Results While both habit and intention independently predicted snack intake, no interaction between habit and intention was found. Conclusions No support was found for the expected moderating impact of habit on the intention-behaviour relationship, indicating that individuals with intentions can act on those intentions despite having habits. Previous evidence of a habit-intention interaction effect may be unreliable. A growing literature indicates that habitual tendencies can be inhibited, albeit with difficulty. Habits and intentions may vary in the influence they exert over discrete behaviour instances. While the aggregation of behaviours across instances and individuals used in our study reflects the dominant methodology in habit research, it precludes examination of effects of in-situ habits and intentions. More sophisticated data collection and analysis methods may be needed to better understand potential habit-intention interactions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Do habits always override intentions? Pitting unhealthy snacking habits against snack-avoidance intentions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s40359-015-0065-4 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-015-0065-4 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2015 Gardner et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
| Keywords: | Habit, Automaticity, Reasoned action, Health behaviour, Diet, Snacking |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470135 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
