The goal dependent automaticity of drinking habits

In recent treatments of habitual social behaviour, habits are conceptualised as a form of goal-directed automatic behaviour that are mentally represented as goal-action links. Three experiments tested this conceptualisation in the context of students’ drinking (alcohol consumption) habits. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions where either a goal related to drinking behaviour (socialising) was activated, or an unrelated goal was activated. In addition, participants’ drinking habits were measured. The dependent variable in Experiments 1 and 2 was readiness to drink, operationalised by speed of responding to the action concept “drinking” in a verb verification task. Experiment 3 used uptake of a voucher to measure drinking behaviour. Findings supported the view that when habits are established, simply activating a goal related to the focal behaviour automatically elicits that behaviour. These findings are consistent with a goal-dependent conception of habit. Possibilities for interventions designed to attenuate undesirable habitual behaviours are considered

Right here, right now: situated interventions to change consumer habits

Consumer behavior-change interventions have traditionally encouraged consumers to form conscious intentions, but in the past decade it has been shown that while these interventions have a medium-to-large effect in changing intentions, they have a much smaller effect in changing behavior. Consumers often do not act in accordance with their conscious intentions because situational cues in the immediate environment automatically elicit learned, habitual behaviors. It has therefore been suggested that researchers refocus their efforts on developing interventions that target unconscious, unintentional influences on behavior, such as cue-behavior (“habit”) associations. To develop effective consumer behavior-change interventions, however, we argue that it is first important to understand how consumer experiences are represented in memory, in order to successfully target the situational cues that most strongly predict engagement in habitual behavior. In this article, we present a situated cognition perspective of habits and discuss how the situated cognition perspective extends our understanding of how consumer experiences are represented in memory, and the processes through which these situational representations can be retrieved in order to elicit habitual consumer behaviors. Based on the principles of situated cognition, we then discuss five ways that interventions could change consumer habits by targeting situational cues in the consumer environment and suggest how existing interventions utilizing these behavior-change strategies could be improved by integrating the principles of the situated cognition approach

Supporting habit formation for long-term weight loss maintenance with a Virtual Coach - A Research Model

Maintaining weight loss is challenging for patients who suffer from obesity as behavior changes need to be kept long-term. Prior research has shown that introducing habitual behavior (i.e., habits) can lead to automaticity in performing a specific behavior so that it becomes second nature. This research-and-progress paper develops a research model to investigate the efficacy of virtual coaches to guide patients in forming habits. In particular, we investigate how virtual coaches can help patients form an implementation intention for a particular habit and positively reinforce this implementation intention using reminders, praise, and self-monitoring. Implications of this work are described for related diseases and long-term evaluations of virtual coaches

The Process of Habit Formation In IS Post-adoption

This paper proposes a process model for habit formation in IS post-adoption. On the basis of extant literature (in IS and other fields), we provide insights into five important constructs that play a role in the formation of IS-use habits: satisfaction, reinforcement, frequency, extent of use, and stability in context. Our proposed model is dynamic in nature and highlights the relative roles of habit and intention as antecedents of IS post-adoption use. The proposed model was developed in three phases. Phase I explains the initial interaction of users with the system, which may pave the way to habit formation. Phase II sheds light on the actual development of habits and highlights the balance between habits and intention as antecedents of IS use. Phase III provides insights on how a habit can crystallize. The paper closes with a discussion of implications for researchers and practitioners

Implementation Intention and Action Planning Interventions in Health Contexts: State of the Research and Proposals for the Way Forward

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on two planning intervention techniques in health behaviour research, implementation intentions and action planning, and to develop evidence-based recommendations for effective future interventions and highlight priority areas for future research. We focused our review on four key areas: (1) definition and conceptualisation; (2) format and measurement; (3) mechanisms and processes; and (4) design issues. Overall, evidence supports the effectiveness of planning interventions in health behaviour with advantages including low cost and response burden. There is, however, considerable heterogeneity in the effects across studies and relatively few registered randomised trials that include objective behavioural measures. Optimally effective planning interventions should adopt “if–then” plans, account for salient and relevant cues, include examples of cues, be guided rather than user-defined, and include boosters. Future studies should adopt randomised controlled designs, report study protocols, include fidelity checks and relevant comparison groups, and adopt long-term behavioural follow-up measures. Priority areas for future research include the identification of the moderators and mediators of planning intervention effects. Future research also needs to adopt “best practice” components of planning interventions more consistently to elucidate the mechanisms and processes involved

The Relationship between Habit and Healthcare Professional Behaviour in Clinical Practice: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Theories of behaviour used to understand healthcare professional behaviour often focus on the deliberative processes that drive their behaviour; however, less is known about the role that implicit processes such as habit have on healthcare professional behaviour. This systematic review aimed to critically appraise and synthesise research evidence investigating the association between habit and healthcare professional behaviour. A search of five databases (PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus and CINAHL) was conducted up until 29 February 2016 to identify studies reporting correlations between habit and healthcare professional behaviours. Meta-analyses were conducted to assess the overall habit-behaviour association across all behaviours. A subgroup analysis assessed whether the habit-behaviour relationship differed depending on whether the behaviour was objectively measured or assessed by self-report. We identified nine eligible studies involving 1975 healthcare professionals that included 28 habit-behaviour correlations. A combined mean r+ of 0.35 (medium effect) was observed between habit and healthcare professional behaviour. The habit-behaviour correlation was not affected by whether behaviour was measured objectively or by self-report. This review suggests that habit plays a significant role in healthcare professional behaviour. Findings may have implications for considering health professionals’ habit when promoting the provision of evidence-based health care, and for breaking existing habit when de-implementing outdated, non-evidence-based practices

A dual-process model of older adults’ sedentary behavior

Objective: This 14-day daily diary study tested a dual-process model of motivation to determine the between-person (time-invariant) and within-person (time-varying) processes associated with older adults’ daily sedentary behavior. This model integrated the health action process approach (HAPA) with research on habit strength. Method: Older adults (n = 100) answered questions regarding their motivation and behavior at the beginning and end of each day, respectively. Participants also wore ActivPAL3 activity monitors for the duration of the study. Results: Multilevel models predicting behavior revealed that sedentary behavior was (a) negatively associated with planning to reduce sedentary behavior at the within-person (but not the between-person) level, and (b) positively associated with sedentary behavior habit strength. Plans to limit sedentary behavior were (a) positively associated with task self-efficacy at the within-person level, but (b) negatively associated at the between-person level, and (c) positively associated with intentions at the between- and within-person level. Intentions to limit sedentary behavior were (a) positively associated with task self-efficacy at the between and within-person level, but (b) not associated with light-intensity physical activity outcome expectations, sedentary behavior risk perceptions, or sedentary behavior habit strength. Conclusions: This study was the first to systematically investigate a combination of controlled and automatic processes that are associated with daily fluctuations in older adults’ sedentary behavior. Interventions aiming to reduce sedentary behavior in older adults should target the motivational constructs identified in this study to provide the best chance for behavior change

Behavioural science and financial capability : designing and testing complex interventions

Financial capability is a multifaceted concept that describes the skills and knowledge of managing one’s financial resources. This area has seen recent interest in identifying the underlying factors due to the increasing responsibility placed upon consumers. Policy makers typically use financial education to improve financial behaviours (based on economic assumptions), which has demonstrated mixed effects. To develop more reliable methods, the current thesis uses a comprehensive model of behaviour to understand the barriers and facilitators of financial capability, in addition to developing and testing interventions to improve financial capability. The first chapter provides a conceptual review of financial capability through a behavioural science lens, to understand why greater financial literacy may not translate to optimal financial behaviours. The second chapter details the behavioural framework used in the thesis in greater depth, the third chapter details some of the issues why individuals fail to maintain their goals under the concept of cognitive control. In the fourth chapter I present secondary analyses of previously conducted formative research identifying several key behavioural mechanisms affecting people’s financial capability. Firstly, individuals often fail to keep within their means due to automatic mechanisms to improve their social rank amongst peers. Secondly, individuals often struggle to save for the future due to deficits in more reflective mechanisms, e.g., goal-directedness. I provide a behavioural diagnosis from these findings in chapter five, from which I design and pilot three intervention. The pilot study’s findings are then used to inform the design of a randomized control trial. The sixth chapter details a multi-site randomised-controlled trial. This trial uses Goal-Setting and Habit-Based interventions to improve participants’ financial capability, measured via their consumption, account balances, and savings. The Goal-Setting group demonstrated significant improvements across all three measures. In contrast, the Habit-Based group improved only in their account balances compared to the Control group. The seventh chapter examines the moderating effects of individual differences which have been previously demonstrated to account for variations in consumption and savings. These results demonstrate that higher levels of goal-directedness can improve reductions in monetary consumption