Monday, February 6, 2017

Don't Overthink It: Habit and Decision Making

As people, we face hundreds of decisions every day – what to eat for breakfast, what shoes to wear, when to go to bed, and many more. However, I don’t tend to go through piles of paper each day making pro-and-con lists, feeling morally obliged to eat yogurt over toast, or considering what friends would rate as a good writing utensil to take notes with; I just do it.

In class, we’ve discussed (or will discuss) four models to describe behavior, which include social, attitude, and logical factors. Previous experience and habit have been discussed in this context as well but are generally consider to be “accounted for” in other factors. In the process of interviewing several sources on their commutes to work, habit was identified as a major reason why they and their coworkers drive to work. This seems to suggest that the influence of habit should be accounted for more directly.

Habits consist of three-parts: a cue to engage autopilot, the routine behavior, and the reward. For example, when my alarm goes off in the morning (the trigger), the sound is annoying so I hit snooze (the behavior). This allows me to stay within the warm blankets of my bed for a few more minutes (the reward). This cycle makes the activity stick – the cue provides a reminder and opportunities to perform the action, and the reward associates it with positive emotions.


While habits may conjure up images of nail-biters, junk-food eaters, smokers, and nose-pickers, I’d argue that pro-environmental habit-creation is a goal for our behavior interventions. Changing or creating habits takes time. Once habits are formed, however, they are highly durable. Habits reduce the decision-making and mental attention required for a given activity and free up attention to be used for new behaviors. By including behavioral context (i.e. consequences of behavior, responsibility, obligation) in the reward, the positive emotions triggered could encourage additional behavior. For example, creating a habit of turning off lights in unoccupied rooms at home could encourage someone to turn off lights at work/school, to conserve resources like water, or to take the stairs rather than an elevator. Forming a habit of carpooling to work with a friend could snowball into more deliberate car trips, grocery shopping expeditions that prevent food waste, or bringing a homemade lunch to work instead of driving to get fast food.

What are the pros and cons associated with a habit-focused approach as compared to an intention-focused approach? Will something similar work for larger behavior changes, such as reducing flying for vacations? Could a behavior change be purely focused on forming a habit be successful, or are factors such as norm activation and education inherently necessary?

Sources

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