Reaching for our phones upon waking, standing in the same point on the station platform, sneaking in a sweet treat after the evening meal - we all have habits that shape our lives.
Authors
- Benjamin Gardner
Professor in Psychology, University of Surrey
- Amanda L. Rebar
Associate Professor, University of South Carolina
But you may underestimate the power habits have in your life. Our new study shows that the majority of actions people take in a day are carried out on autopilot.
Habitual behaviour is made up of the things that we do without thinking, prompted by our environment and learned through repeated enactment. Encountering a familiar trigger - such as a sound, a location or another person - can activate a learned association, which in turn prompts a non-conscious impulse to act. The sound of your alarm clock, for example, may be enough to prompt you to reach for your phone, without consciously deciding to.
Habits can influence our behaviour in two ways. We can habitually initiate something - selecting a behaviour without much thought - or habitually do something, where the steps involved in a sequence are carried out at least partly on autopilot.
But just how much of our day-to-day lives are shaped by habit?
Our new study aimed to find out. We recruited 105 people, aged 18-73 years old, and sent prompts to their phones six times a day over one week. Each prompt asked four questions: what were they doing when we interrupted them? To what extent was that action initiated without conscious thought? To what extent was it performed automatically? And how much had they wanted to do it?
The most commonly reported behaviour types were working or studying, domestic or childcare activities, and using a screen-based device. More importantly, 65% of all actions were initiated out of habit. People chose to do them without making a conscious decision. And 88% of actions were performed on autopilot.
This suggests that around two-thirds of the decisions we make each day are automated, instead of driven by conscious deliberation.
However, this does not mean that we simply act mindlessly, without awareness or free will.
Around one in three actions in our study were intentional but not habitual. People had consciously chosen to do them, probably because the action or setting was unfamiliar, or because their habits were not strong enough to exert influence.
Crucially, 76% of all actions - including 67% of those actions initiated or performed out of habit - were things people intended to do. Habits develop when we repeatedly do things in certain settings. Several studies suggest that, with once-daily repetition, it takes around two months to form a habit. This ranges considerably though. One 2021 study found habit formation to take anywhere from four to 335 days.
Only two people (2%) in our study said they always acted intentionally and never out of habit. The vast majority said they were acting in line with intentions or habits, or both, at least some of the time. For each of us, there appears to be variation, across time, in whether we act habitually or intentionally, probably due to the natural ebb and flow of our attention and motivation.
We would not exert the effort needed to repeatedly do these actions if they served no purpose. Our habits and goals are therefore often aligned. We may reach for our phones automatically, but that can help us stay informed. We might instinctively stand in the same spot on the platform, but that may help us find a seat on the train.
Habits are adaptive. We have limited mental resources at any one time. If we had to deliberate over all our mundane decisions each day - like when to have a shower - we would have less capacity to focus on more important matters, like preparing for that big presentation later in the day.
In fact, deliberating over actions that are usually done habitually can backfire. One 2017 paper showed that, when people were incentivised to perform effectively, they tended to eschew their habits and engage in more mindful performance. Ironically, participants who chose to deliberate gave a poorer quality performance than those who acted habitually.
Habits are not, therefore, the enemy of free will. In fact, they can make life easier.
The downside of habits appears when they stop serving our goals. Bad habits push us towards choices that undermine what we really want. People who are trying to lose weight, for example, often struggle against long-standing eating habits that favour unhealthy options. Staying on track in these moments often requires strong, sustained willpower to resist the pull of old habits. When we are distracted, stressed or fatigued it is harder to counteract our bad habits. Even brief dips in motivation can prompt lapses into our old ways, kickstarting a chain of negative emotions, denting our confidence in our ability to change, and so unravelling our efforts to change our behaviour.
Effective ways to break bad habits include identifying and avoiding triggers to unwanted habits, and making unwanted behaviour harder to automatically activate. A habitual evening snacker might, for example, avoid going to the kitchen in the evening so that they aren't tempted by the snack cupboard.
Our findings show that habits play a huge role in shaping our everyday lives, often helping us act efficiently. Understanding how habits work provides a powerful tool for behaviour change. Whether you are making a new routine or breaking an old one, recognising the triggers that drive your actions - and how you respond to them - can help you stay in control.
Amanda L. Rebar receives funding from the National Institute of Health (US), the Australian Research Council, and the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia).
Benjamin Gardner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
