My friend Karla rang me and asked if I knew of any research about "habits". I had a look (Google Scholar "psychology, habit") and discovered that the psychology of habit is seriously under-researched.
(Except for one article that argued that habit was "goal-directed automaticity".)
So I thought about it, and I think that habit might consist of at least 5 different entities. Interesting thing is, when you consider each entity separately you get some ideas about how to overcome what can seem to be ingrained habits.
1) Pay-off. Some habits are maintained because they "work". So, for instance, someone habitually accepts plastic bags at the supermarket, because that delivers ease and convenience.
Solution: make the practice less convenient, and it's alternative more convenient.
2) Obliviousness. Some habits are maintained because we aren't paying attention. For instance, I habitually ignore roadside speeding signs because I just don't see them (really!) The human brain only has so much attention to spread around, and we might be just habitually paying attention to other things (like our thoughts). [Google "salience"].
Solution: prompt people to pay attention to the matter.
3) Sunk costs (or 'loss aversion'). We may have invested a lot of money, time or prestige in a particular practice. Because humans naturally overestimate losses compared to potential gains, we often defend our investments to the point of stupidity. [Google "Loss Aversion"]
Solution: encourage people to consider the 'big picture' or 'long view' where the the long-term gain is worth the short-term loss.
4) Denial or resistance. Where fear of the unfamiliar causes us to avoid information about it, and resist pressure to change our behaviour.
[Google "Cognitive Dissonance" and "Psychological Reactance"]
Solution: increase the familiarity of the new practice.
5) Social identity. Where someone's social identity is wrapped up in a practice, change can threaten their identity and relationships, so naturally they actively maintain that practice (a case of denial, really).
Solution: connect the new practice to people's values.
Gee Les, You have certainly identified some varieties of habitual actions but the other aspect of this (and I think the most interesting) is habitual ways of thinking. You actually referred to this and gave several examples in your earlier blog (eg engineers think in terms of buidling things).
ReplyDeleteThe importance of habitual thinking cant be underestimated. By referring to it as habitual thinking, rather than idealising it with a label such as expertise, it might be possible to better understand why so many silly things happen in the world.
Karla