Annual Review of Psychology· 2015Q1· Review
Psychology of Habit
- 1,412citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Habits form as people repeat responses in stable contexts to achieve goals, acting as an efficient default mode that can be inferred as intentional behavior.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Habits are formed by repeating responses in stable contexts to achieve goals.
- Habits serve as the efficient, default mode of action, guiding behavior synergistically with deliberate goal pursuit.
- The frequency of habit performance can lead individuals to infer that the behavior was intentional.
- Understanding habit formation is crucial for designing effective interventions for health and consumer behaviors.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
As the proverbial creatures of habit, people tend to repeat the same behaviors in recurring contexts. This review characterizes habits in terms of their cognitive, motivational, and neurobiological properties. In so doing, we identify three ways that habits interface with deliberate goal pursuit: First, habits form as people pursue goals by repeating the same responses in a given context. Second, as outlined in computational models, habits and deliberate goal pursuit guide actions synergistically, although habits are the efficient, default mode of response. Third, people tend to infer from the frequency of habit performance that the behavior must have been intended. We conclude by applying insights from habit research to understand stress and addiction as well as the design of effective interventions to change health and consumer behaviors.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Psychology, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Applied Psychology
Applied PsychologyPsychology