HABIT FORMATION AND HEALTH

While often used as a synonym for frequent or customary behaviour in everyday parlance, within psychology, 'habits' are defined as actions that are triggered automatically in response to contextual cues that have been associated with their performance: for example, automatically washing hands (action) after using the toilet (contextual cue), or putting on a seatbelt (action) after getting into the car (contextual cue). Decades of psychological research consistently show that mere repetition of a simple action in a consistent context leads, through associative learning, to the action being activated upon subsequent exposure to those contextual cues (that is, habitually). Once initiation of the action is 'transferred' to external cues, dependence on conscious attention or motivational processes is reduced. Therefore habits are likely to persist even after conscious motivation or interest dissipates. Habits are also cognitively efficient, because the automation of common actions frees mental resources for other tasks.

A growing literature demonstrates the relevance of habit-formation principles to health. Participants in one study repeated a self-chosen health-promoting behaviour (for example, eat fruit, go for a walk) in response to a single, once-daily cue in their own environment (such as, after breakfast). Daily ratings of the subjective automaticity of the behaviour (that is, habit strength) showed an asymptotic increase, with an initial acceleration that slowed to a plateau after an average of 66 days. Missing the occasional opportunity to perform the behaviour did not seriously impair the habit formation process: automaticity gains soon resumed after one missed performance. Automaticity strength peaked more quickly for simple actions (for example, drinking water) than for more elaborate routines (for example, doing 50 sit-ups).

--British Journal of General Practice Article Link