•Habit is proposed to promote behaviour maintenance, but questions have been raised about its role in sustaining complex behaviours.•Distinguishing between habitual action selection ('habitual ...instigation') and habitual performance ('habitual execution') may resolve this issue.•This study assessed the role of habitual instigation and habitual execution in regulating four behaviours of varying complexity.•For all behaviours, habitual instigation predicted behaviour frequency, but habitual execution did not.•The habitual instigation process operates identically for simpler and more complex behaviours alike.
Forming a habit - i.e., a cue-behaviour association learned through repeated performance - has been proposed to promote behaviour maintenance, but some commentators have questioned whether simple cue-behaviour associations can direct complex actions. This paper addresses this issue by drawing on a proposed distinction between 'habitual instigation', whereby habit automatically prompts the impulse to initiate an action episode, and 'habitual execution', whereby habit automates performance of sub-actions involved in that episode. Theory predicts that frequency should be determined by habitual instigation, but not habitual execution, irrespective of complexity. This study examined the influence of habitual instigation and execution on the frequency of four behaviours ranging in complexity.
A sample of 173 participants, recruited via an online platform, completed questionnaire measures of perceived complexity, and instigation and execution habit, for four behaviours expected to vary in complexity (checking one's phone, drinking sugary drinks, using social media, using public transport). Of these, 118 participants self-reported behaviour frequency one week later. ANOVAs compared complexity perceptions across behaviours, and multivariate regressions modelled effects of instigation and execution habit on behaviour.
Drinking sugary drinks was rated the simplest behaviour, followed by phone-checking, and using social media. Using public transport was rated most complex. Across behaviours, instigation-behaviour correlations tended to be stronger than execution-behaviour correlations, and instigation habit predicted behaviour but execution did not.
Instigation habit regulated performance frequency of simple and complex behaviours alike. While complexity may be an important consideration when developing new habits, it is less relevant to the relationship between established habits and behaviour. Interventions should promote instigation habits to maintain even complex behaviours.
Situating safari tourism within the discourses and practices of development, Selling the Serengeti examines the relationship between the Maasai people of northern Tanzania and the extraordinary ...influence of foreign-owned ecotourism and big-game hunting companies. It contrasts two major approaches to community conservation—international NGO and state-sponsored conservation efforts on the one hand and the neoliberal private investment in tourism on the other—and investigates their profound effect on the Maasai's culture and livelihood. It further explores how these changing social and economic forces remake the terms through which state institutions and local people engage with foreign investors, communities, and their own territories. And finally it highlights how the new tourism arrangements change the shape and meaning of the nation- state and the village and in the process remake cultural belonging and citizenship. Benjamin Gardner's experiences in Tanzania began during a study-abroad trip in 1991. His stay led to a relationship with the nation and the Maasai people in Loliondo lasting almost twenty years; it also marked the beginning of his analysis of and ethnographic research into social movements, market-led conservation, and neoliberal development around the Serengeti.
Understanding human behavior lies at the heart of responses to climate change. Many environmentally relevant behavior patterns are frequent, stable, and persistent. There is an increasing focus on ...understanding these patterns less in terms of deliberative processes and more in terms of habits and routines embedded in everyday life. Examinations of the ‘habitual’ nature of environmentally consequential activities have been approached from two theoretically distinct perspectives. From a social psychological perspective, ‘habit’ is studied as an intra‐individual psychological construct that sustains ingrained behavior patterns in stable settings and obstructs adoption of more environmentally friendly alternatives. Sociologists from the social practice tradition, in contrast, have sought to highlight the ways in which resource‐intensive ‘habitual practices’ become established and maintained in society through a commingling of material, procedural, and socio‐discursive elements. We reflect critically upon key theoretical differences underpinning these two approaches to repetitive behaviors and review empirical work from both traditions that speaks to the relevance of ‘habitual behavior patterns’ central to addressing climate change. Finally, we examine how changes in habits are theorized and operationalized within both social psychological and social practice approaches, and practical implications for promoting environmentally sustainable societies. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:113–128. doi: 10.1002/wcc.327
This article is categorized under:
Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Behavior Change and Responses
Raman spectroscopy can be used to measure the chemical composition of a sample, which can in turn be used to extract biological information. Many materials have characteristic Raman spectra, which ...means that Raman spectroscopy has proven to be an effective analytical approach in geology, semiconductor, materials and polymer science fields. The application of Raman spectroscopy and microscopy within biology is rapidly increasing because it can provide chemical and compositional information, but it does not typically suffer from interference from water molecules. Analysis does not conventionally require extensive sample preparation; biochemical and structural information can usually be obtained without labeling. In this protocol, we aim to standardize and bring together multiple experimental approaches from key leaders in the field for obtaining Raman spectra using a microspectrometer. As examples of the range of biological samples that can be analyzed, we provide instructions for acquiring Raman spectra, maps and images for fresh plant tissue, formalin-fixed and fresh frozen mammalian tissue, fixed cells and biofluids. We explore a robust approach for sample preparation, instrumentation, acquisition parameters and data processing. By using this approach, we expect that a typical Raman experiment can be performed by a nonspecialist user to generate high-quality data for biological materials analysis.
The twelve-item Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) is the most popular measure of energy-balance related habits. This measure characterises habit by automatic activation, behavioural frequency, and ...relevance to self-identity. Previous empirical research suggests that the SRHI may be abbreviated with no losses in reliability or predictive utility. Drawing on recent theorising suggesting that automaticity is the 'active ingredient' of habit-behaviour relationships, we tested whether an automaticity-specific SRHI subscale could capture habit-based behaviour patterns in self-report data.
A content validity task was undertaken to identify a subset of automaticity indicators within the SRHI. The reliability, convergent validity and predictive validity of the automaticity item subset was subsequently tested in secondary analyses of all previous SRHI applications, identified via systematic review, and in primary analyses of four raw datasets relating to energy-balance relevant behaviours (inactive travel, active travel, snacking, and alcohol consumption).
A four-item automaticity subscale (the 'Self-Report Behavioural Automaticity Index'; 'SRBAI') was found to be reliable and sensitive to two hypothesised effects of habit on behaviour: a habit-behaviour correlation, and a moderating effect of habit on the intention-behaviour relationship.
The SRBAI offers a parsimonious measure that adequately captures habitual behaviour patterns. The SRBAI may be of particular utility in predicting future behaviour and in studies tracking habit formation or disruption.
The term 'habit' is widely used to predict and explain behaviour. This paper examines use of the term in the context of health-related behaviour, and explores how the concept might be made more ...useful. A narrative review is presented, drawing on a scoping review of 136 empirical studies and 8 literature reviews undertaken to document usage of the term 'habit', and methods to measure it. A coherent definition of 'habit', and proposals for improved methods for studying it, were derived from findings. Definitions of 'habit' have varied in ways that are often implicit and not coherently linked with an underlying theory. A definition is proposed whereby habit is a process by which a stimulus generates an impulse to act as a result of a learned stimulus-response association. Habit-generated impulses may compete or combine with impulses and inhibitions arising from other sources, including conscious decision-making, to influence responses, and need not generate behaviour. Most research on habit is based on correlational studies using self-report measures. Adopting a coherent definition of 'habit', and a wider range of paradigms, designs and measures to study it, may accelerate progress in habit theory and application.
Objectives
Habit formation has been proposed as a means to promote maintenance of healthy behaviours, but there have been few investigations into how habits are formed. This exploratory study sought ...to model determinants of the formation of a dental flossing habit, including placement of the behaviour within the routine (before vs. after tooth‐brushing), past behaviour, prospective memory ability, and motivational factors.
Design and Method
All participants (N = 50) received a motivational intervention designed to initiate behaviour change and habit formation. Half of the participants were instructed to floss before brushing, and half after. Participants subsequently self‐reported flossing behaviour daily and, 4 weeks later, flossing automaticity. Automaticity and flossing frequency were also measured at 8‐month follow‐up.
Results
Participants with stronger prospective memory ability, higher levels of past behaviour, and a more positive attitude flossed more frequently during the study. Stronger automaticity was predicted by positive attitudes, and increased behaviour frequency during and prior to the study. Those who flossed after brushing (rather than before) tended to form stronger flossing habits and, at 8‐month follow‐up, had stronger habits and flossed more frequently.
Conclusions
Habit forming interventions might usefully consider features of everyday routines and how behaviour may be reinforced. Suggestions for further research using more methodologically rigorous designs are offered.
Statement of contribution
What is already known on this subject?
The formation of habit – that is, a learnt automatic response to contextual cues – requires initiation of a behaviour and repetition in a constant context. A recent formation study showed variation in habit strength despite equal repetitions, indicating that factors other than repetition may be important in habit development. From studies of routine behaviour, the boundaries between sub‐routines are characterized by different processes than the middle of sub‐routines, suggesting that placement of behaviour within existing routines may affect the likelihood of habit formation.
What does this study add? Greater prospective memory ability predicted more frequent dental flossing. Initiating flossing after rather than before tooth‐brushing promoted stronger habits. Positive attitudes impacted directly on habit formation, independent of behaviour repetition.
► Qualitative analysis of mainstream drivers’ responses to using plug-in electric cars. ► 40 UK drivers interviewed after a seven-day period of use of a plug-in electric car. ► Six thematic ...categories were identified. ► Current-generation electric cars were seen as ‘works in progress’. ► Results highlight potential barriers to purchase and use of electric cars.
Plug-in electric vehicles can potentially emit substantially lower CO
2 emissions than internal combustion engine vehicles, and so have the potential to reduce transport emissions without curtailing personal car use. Assessing the potential uptake of these new categories of vehicles requires an understanding of likely consumer responses. Previous in-depth explorations of appraisals and evaluations of electric vehicles have tended to focus on ‘early adopters’, who may not represent mainstream consumers. This paper reports a qualitative analysis of responses to electric cars, based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 UK non-commercial drivers (20 males, 20 females; age 24–70
years) at the end of a seven-day period of using a battery electric car (20 participants) or a plug-in hybrid car (20 participants). Six core categories of response were identified: (1) cost minimisation; (2) vehicle confidence; (3) vehicle adaptation demands; (4) environmental beliefs; (5) impression management; and, underpinning all other categories, (6) the perception of electric cars generally as ‘work in progress’ products. Results highlight potential barriers to the uptake of current-generation (2010) plug-in electric cars by mainstream consumers. These include the prioritization of personal mobility needs over environmental benefits, concerns over the social desirability of electric vehicle use, and the expectation that rapid technological and infrastructural developments will make current models obsolete. Implications for the potential uptake of future electric vehicles are discussed.
In the wake of Covid-19, the prevalence of working from home ('home-working') is expected to rise. Yet, working from home can have negative health and wellbeing impacts. Interventions are needed to ...promote effective ways of working that also protect workers' health and wellbeing. This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention intended to promote home-working practices that would protect and promote health behaviour and wellbeing.
An uncontrolled, single-arm mixed-methods trial design was employed. Forty-two normally-office-based UK workers, working from home between January-February 2021 (during the Covid pandemic), consented to receive the intervention. The intervention: a digital document offering evidence-based recommendations for home-working in ways conducive to health behaviour and wellbeing. Feasibility and acceptability were quantitatively indexed by: expressions of interest within 1 week (target threshold ≥ 35); attrition across the one-week study period (threshold ≤ 20%); and the absence of any apparent detriments in self-reported physical activity, sedentary behaviour, snacking, and work-related wellbeing prior to and one week after receiving the intervention. Qualitative think-aloud data, obtained while participants read through the intervention, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, explored acceptability. Semi-structured interviews conducted one week after intervention exposure were content-analysed to identify whether and which behaviour changes were adopted.
Two feasibility criteria were met: 85 expressions of interest indicated satisfactory intervention demand, and no detriments were observed in health behaviours or wellbeing. Forty-two participants (i.e., maximum capacity for the study; 26 females, 16 males, aged 22-63) consented to take part. 31% dropped out over the one-week study period leaving a final sample of 29 (18 females, 11 males, aged 22-63), exceeding identified attrition thresholds. Think-aloud data showed that participants concurred with intervention guidance, but felt it lacked novelty and practicality. Follow-up interviews produced 18 (62%) participant reports of intervention adherence, where nine recommendations reportedly prompted behaviour change in at least one participant.
Mixed evidence was found for intervention feasibility and acceptability. Whilst the information was deemed relevant and of value, further development is required to increase its novelty. It may also be more fruitful to provide this information via employers, to encourage and emphasise employer endorsement.
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