An Introduction to The Psychology of Habits

An interview with behavioral scientist, author, & habits expert Samuel Salzer

The psychology of habits is one of the most fascinating - and most important areas of behavioral science. As Will Durant remarked, paraphrasing Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do… therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit”

Given the importance of habits in our lives, understanding their psychology is crucial. One of the key challenges is that habits, as a concept, has taken on additional meaning and values which can crowd out the science. The way we speak about habits, and the scientific terminology, have significantly diverged.

To help bridge this gap between practical definition and science, we speak with habit expert Samuel Salzer. Having studied the science of habits for over a decade, Sam is the host of the popular newsletter Habit Weekly, Co-host of The Behavioral Design podcast, and co-founder of Nuance and The Habit Coach Professionals.

In this interview we separate set the record straight on the defining the psychology of habits

Let’s dive in

Most of us understand what a habit is intuitively, but may have difficulty fully nailing down a definition. To start off, how would you define a habit?

One of the most complicated things about habits lies in the challenge of defining them fully. How we speak about them, colloquially, is very different from how they are spoken about in an academic sense. For me, I tend to rely on a standard definition, such as the one put forth by Wendy Wood, which centers around behavior triggered by contextual cues. Essentially, habits are actions performed almost automatically in response to specific cues.

There's a lot of discussion surrounding the role of rewards in habits. However, what's intriguing about habits is their tendency to become less sensitive to rewards over time. This challenges the traditional habit loop model, which doesn't accurately depict how habits form or how they function before and after formation.

Before a habit is formed, there's a significant psychological process involved between the contextual cue and the behavior itself. It's not simply a matter of cue, behavior, reward initially, as there's significant mental activity taking place. Once a habit is established, it quickly becomes a more automatic response to cues, although the role of rewards diminishes in importance over time.

There are a lot of conversations these days about the value of habits, and where they should fit into a person’s life. How have you come to think about the modern discourse around the psychology of habits?

There’s a big difference between the science of habits and the colloquial definition of habits. There’s a general tendency to equate habits with personal development or growth. In the modern era, habits have almost a synonym for personal development, or personal growth. It’s almost become a measure of your personal worth: if you have good habits, you're doing good, and you can be considered a good person.

This perception is evident in popular psychology books, with books like "The Power of Habit," "Atomic Habits," and others attempting to categorize habits into good or bad, or even exploring concepts like "tiny habits" from Fogg's work. Additionally, books like "Hooked" aim to popularize habits within a product context, focusing on how to design products that engage users effectively. Therefore, habits have become somewhat of a panacea for leading a fulfilling life – the more good habits you have, the happier you'll be.

While this generally holds true, it introduces a disconnect between expectations and reality. Not everyone necessarily requires habits in every aspect of their lives.

Given the popularity of the term, what do you think most people would be surprised to learn about the psychology of habits?

One thing that’s really interesting about habits is that you can’t really know a given behavior is a habit or not, just by observing it. Habits are not a specific type of behavior but rather a way of performing a behavior. This means that observing someone performing a task, even repeatedly, doesn't necessarily indicate whether it's habitual or not. Take, for instance, the simple act of getting dressed in the morning. If you were to surreptitiously film someone dressing, it would be difficult to discern whether they're doing it habitually or not.

The distinction lies in how the behavior is executed. If someone puts on their clothes in a repetitive sequence without much conscious thought, then it's habitual. However, if they decide to approach the task mindfully one day, the behavior ceases to be habitual. This challenges the common perception of habits as a fixed type of behavior and highlights that it's more about the manner in which a behavior is engaged with.

Essentially, you can't definitively observe a behavior, even a repetitive one, and determine if it's habitual or not. It hinges on internal, psychological mechanisms within the individual - automaticity and responsiveness to contextual cues and potential rewards.

Given the internal, psychological nature of habits, how can they be measured, scientifically? How can we know if a given behavior is habitual, unless we’re the one doing it?

This presents a significant challenge in measuring habits accurately. Since habitual behaviors occur with little conscious thought, traditional methods of measurement like self-reporting become pretty difficult Recent approaches have attempted to gauge automaticity or relied on observations of repeated, stable behaviors in specific contexts to infer habit formation. For example, if someone consistently performs the same action in a given context without conscious effort, it suggests habitual behavior.

However, even these methods have limitations in fully capturing the nuances of habit formation - again due to its inherently internal nature. There's also research in neuroscience aimed at identifying neural signatures associated with habitual versus deliberate behaviors. And so it's possible in principle. But in a real-world scenario, outside of the lab, it can be very hard to discern what is habitual and what’s not just by looking at the behavior.

More from Samuel Salzer on The Impact of Habits on Novelty, Experience, and Memory, and how we can reconcile the Habit Psychology Paradox

Photo by Ryoji Iwata via UnSplash