Attitudes, Habits, and Behavior Change

Abstract

Efforts to guide peoples’ behavior toward environmental sustainability, good health, or new products have emphasized informational and attitude change strategies. There is evidence that changing attitudes leads to changes in behavior, yet this approach takes insufficient account of the nature and operation of habits, which form boundary conditions for attitude-directed interventions. Integration of research on attitudes and habits might enable investigators to identify when and how behavior change strategies will be most effective. How might attitudinally driven behavior change be consolidated into lasting habits? How do habits protect the individual against the vicissitudes of attitudes and temptations and promote goal achievement? How might attitudinal approaches aiming to change habits be improved by capitalizing on habit discontinuities and strategic planning? When and how might changing or creating habit architecture shape habits directly? A systematic approach to these questions might help move behavior change efforts from attitude change strategies to habit change strategies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Knowledge, practices and intention to consume omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids among pregnant and breastfeeding women in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania

“…The present study also assessed women's attitude towards omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Attitudes are emotional, motivational, perceptive and cognitive beliefs that positively or negatively influence the behaviour or practice of an individual (Verplanken and Orbell, 2022). Most of the participants in this study agreed that consumption of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acid food sources and supplements is good for their own health, for unborn babies and they can even be used for weight management.…”

“…This agrees with what was reported by Risti et al (2021) as well as Chen and Antonelli (2020) in Indonesia and Italy, respectively. Other factors that may influence an individual's behaviour include perceived health benefits, the use of media as well as the advice given by health professionals (Verplanken and Orbell, 2022).…”

Context Stability in Habit Building Increases Automaticity and Goal Attainment

“…When intentionally building good habits with specifically defined goals, motivation and intention are necessary in the beginning to build automaticity. Verplanken and Orbell (2022) describe how attitudes can be the starting point of habit formation by providing the initial motivation to pursue a not yet automized behavior. If the behavior is then repeated in stable contexts over time, control gradually shifts to automaticity, which is accompanied by an increasing resistance to outcome devaluation (Neal et al, 2011;Lattarulo et al, 2019).…”

Editorial: On the Nature and Scope of Habits and Model-Free Control

“…Habitual responses are most often described as emerging from stimulus-response associations in memory (Thorndike, 1905 ; Skinner, 1938 ; Hull, 1943 ; Wood and Rünger, 2016 ; Knowlton and Diedrichsen, 2018 ; Verplanken and Orbell, 2021 ). These associations are thought to emerge from behavioral repetition, and the speed with which they emerge is thought to be modulated in part by reward, such that stimulus-response pairings that predict rewarding outcomes are privileged.…”