What is a habit? In modern psychology, habits are learned associations between responses and features of performance (e.g., locations, presence of others) that are stored in procedural memory. Once habits have formed, perception of the context cue directly activates the associated response. Overviews of this research are provided in Wood and Neal (2007) and Neal, Wood, & Quinn (2006).

Habit performance is cued automatically by contexts without depending on a goal. Nonetheless, people's habits typically are consistent with their goals, because people are most likely to repeat actions that produce desired outcomes. But sometimes habits counter what people want to do (e.g., bad habits, action slips).

Because habits are cued by contexts, performance cannot be predicted effectively from people's behavioral goals (Ji Song & Wood, in press; Ouellette & Wood, 1998). In the case of habits, what you intend is not necessarily what you do. Furthermore, habits do not readily change with changes in goals. Changing minds does not necessarily mean changing habitual behavior. Thus, habit performance may be little influenced by public health campaigns and other informational interventions to change beliefs (Verplanken & Wood, 2006). Instead, habits can be changed through control of the cues that trigger performance. People might change the cues themselves, so that the habit response is not triggered. Thus, simply removing cues to eating can help people act on their intentions to diet. Or people might exert effortful control to inhibit the unwanted response once it is activated by the associated cue.

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Neal, D. T., & Wood, W. (in press). Automaticity in situ: Direct context cuing of habits in daily life. In J. A. Bargh, P. Gollwitzer, & E. Morsella (Eds.), Psychology of action (Vol. 2): Mechanisms of human action. New York: Guilford.

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the interface between habits and goals. Psychological Review. [request paper]

Ji Song, M., & Wood, W. (2007). Habitual purchase and consumption: Not always what you intend. Journal of Consumer Psychology. [request paper]

Verplanken, B., & Wood, W. (2006). Changing and breaking consumer habits. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 25, 90-103. [request paper]

Neal, D. T., Wood, W., & Quinn, J. M. (2006). Habits: A repeat performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 198-202. [request paper]

Wood, W., Tam, L., & Guerrero Witt, M. (2005). Changing circumstances, disrupting habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 918-933. [request paper]

Wood, W., Quinn, J. M., & Kashy, D. (2002). Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1281-1297. [request paper]

Ouellette, J., & Wood, W. (1998). Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behavior predicts future behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 54-74. [request paper]