User:DavidKohler/Books/Making Habits, Breaking Habits

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By Jeremy Dean, 2013.

Chapters

• Chapter 1 - Birth of a habit
  • How long does it take to create a habit? Well it changes all the time. 20 days for something simple and much longer for complex things.
  • Three characteristics of habits:
    • We perform habits automatically, without much conscious deliberation
    • Habitual behaviours provoke little emotional response by themselves
    • Habits are strongly rooted in the situations in which they occur (notion of context)

• Chapter 2 - Habit versus intention
  • Habits VS intentions. In short, they sort of line up. Now there is a spectrum of strength of habits. A strong habit, that you do daily or at least weekly, is different than a weak habit that you do only a few times in a year (or less). A clear intention can and does affect weak habits fine. But intentionality yields very little results with strong habits.
  • This actually offers an opportunity to start to see how much intentionality sometimes comes backwards (I tell myself after the fact that I wanted to do that).
  • There’s also an interesting point about how the stronger the habit (the worse our intentionality affects anything) but also the worse we are at predicting our ability. The most confident people about their prediction were the ones with a strong habit (and they ended up being wrong). NOTE: That might be a way to measure the strength of a habit: how well does it do versus your intention.
  • That backward thinking is also quite invisible to us, i.e. we are blind to having changed our mind to create a new intention adapted to the new circumstance.

• Chapter 3 - Your secret autopilot
  • Choice blindness: under certain conditions, you have actually no clue why you chose something. Yet when prompted, we more often than not, create a justification (reasons) for our choice.
  • There is a great deal of blindness between unconscious and conscious. You choose things without knowing why. You think certain things would influence you when they don’t. Self reports on personality, attitudes and self-esteem show a huge range of confusion too. NOTE: This for me, is the beginning of the evidence that humans are NO THING. We have it that we have properties, but we don’t and we are confined to web of stories, those that run us and those that we tell ourselves and others.
  • A lot of what looks like non-behaviour is actually inhibitory behaviour (we were going to automatically drink the glass of water in front of us and we inhibited the action, the total looks like: nothing happened, but that’s far from the truth).
  • Meta-cognition can negatively affect performance: thinking about a choice can lower your ability to make predictions or will yield a different choice (one you can think from more easily) when prompted for a reason for the choice. NOTE: So the distinction ‘’choice’’ where you look at all the considerations and then select, not based on any consideration has a powerful potential. The pitfall would be to select based on a consideration, in that case, the cognitive difficulty or availability of reasons will impact the selection.
  • This speaks also a lot to the fact that we do things without having any clue about why (the real why) and then make up a story about it (avoiding cognitive dissonance is a reward we actively seek).
  • So there is a difference between probing into the unconscious to know why we have a certain behaviour and creating an awareness of our behaviours. NOTE: is that a distinction inside of the notion of ‘’meta-thinking’’?

• Chapter 4 - Don't think, just do it!
  • Skinner’s pigeon experiment is really interesting. (He fed them every 15 seconds and fairly quickly, the pigeons exhibited weird behaviours: stretching necks, walking in circles, walking to corners, etc. The reason provided: the pigeons became superstitious. Whatever they had been doing at the moment when the food arrived was taken for the ‘’cause’’ of the food arrival and then validated. Given the short time cycle, the behaviour was turned rapidly into a habit.) This begs the question: how much of our habits are superstitions? Some humans smile constantly at other human beings, how much is that a superstitious behaviour? (Imagine their unwillingness to alter the behaviour).
  • There is a link between habits and goals. We form habits thinking they help us reach our goal, but it becomes sometimes less and less true. (A bit like pigeons actually). For example associating socializing with drinking (goal, habit).
  • Part of the cues are context-dependent and unconscious. For example priming (Asian students doing math tests).

• Chapter 5 - The daily grind
  • To read: the dice man by Cockroft
  • This paper distinguishes (hopefully) between habits and non-habits: Wood, Quinn & Kashy "Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion and action" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83, no 6 (2006) 464-476
  • Social Habits: it's more what we do together that makes friendships than attitudes and beliefs. Also notice importance of social rituals, for example taking meals.
  • Work Habits: there's a suggested link which is very interesting between innovation and habits (the example is with bicycle industry)
  • Travel Habits: the favorite mode of transportation is heavily anchored as a habit, usually one that we are socialized into (rather than from any intentionality)
  • Eating Habits: (see Mindless Eating by Wansink) quotes more than 200 food-related decisions per day. Studies show that food quality and appetite are actually more post-action rationalization than what actually triggers food consumption (size of plates though does) there's a lot of things to think about here.
  • Shopping Habits: lots here. Nothing dramatically new. Good to have a reference. What they miss is: change in life situation (new job, baby, etc.) changes habits since the CONTEXT has been altered. So the interesting thought here is as follow: strong habits are said to be hardly moved by "intentionality", but life events can alter it (I have a new job, I earn more money hence I'm buying a more expensive brand moving forward) does that mean that a transformation (altered occurring) can shift strong habits?

• Chapter 6 - Stuck in a depressing loop
  • Habit Reversal Training (usually for Tourette):
    • Awareness of the tic and the environmental cue
    • Competing response training. Essentially find an alternative routine.
  • It's noted that this training is difficult and not foolproof (around 50% success in a study with lots of support, e.g. 10 hours of therapy over 10 weeks. It does point to several aspects missing: motivation willpower and abilities to stick at it. No mentions of rewards.
  • Depression as a mental habit (rather than a biological issue) essentially habits of the mind that creates occurings. In the landmark forum we do it a few times sporadically, is the goal or can we, train people to alter the way they create occurings? Something about rumination, as a habit, that could be altered.
  • Talk about CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) it seems to be essentially based on shifting these mental habits by catching some of them as stories and creating a replacement story-routine. How much similar is it to a transformative interaction? What's new to me here is to link it to a mental habit, with a set of cues/contexts. Is there a way to express in the language of habits "what you resist persists"?
  • There's an interesting distinction being made with the example of worrying. It can be "in the stands" abstract "my leg hurts, maybe I'm going to die" (purely a thread of thoughts) versus "my leg hurts, let's have a doctor check it out" which is on the court, performance related, or rather something is done about it. The author hints that everyone can benefit from the "on the court" type of thinking versus the abstract one that does not serve you.

• Chapter 7 - When bad habits kill
  • The more stressed you are, the most likely you are to revert to routines/habits. (This is consistent with our view of habits as “low energy” and doing anything else as more expensive.)
  • Read: Norman “Categorization of action slip” Psychological Review 88 no 1 (1981)
  • Read: James, W. “Habit” (1890)
  • About the idea that “education” or “information” can alter behaviour, there is strong evidence that this is not the case (NOTE: That’s definitely consistent with what I have been saying all along). The UK trying to encourage the use of seat belts in cars is a great example: millions spent on advertisement, explanations, and so on, with very little effect. What made a difference was new laws and strong police enforcement.
  • Maybe read: Gawande “The checklist manifesto: how to get things right” (2010)

• Chapter 8 - Online all the time
  • QUESTION: How much is there out there about “internet habits”? That seems to be a ripe area to look at. The book has a great analogy for our checking emails habits to a rat getting pellets at random intervals (it’s called variable-interval reinforcement schedule) NOTE: Is there an existing solution to only receive emails on the hour? (I can schedule myself to only look on the hour, but if I look at 9:43 there will be something, so why not doing it in a way that at between 9:01 and 9:59 my inbox NEVER changes. There might be money to make here? The other analogy for email is the slot machine…
  • Read: Jackson, Dawson & Wilson “Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace” (2002)
  • Read: Ramsay & Renaud “Using insights from email users to inform organizational email management policy” Behaviour & Information Technology no 1 (2010)
  • The author suggests a habit of checking email at work (for people with a good deal of work emails) every 45 minutes!!!!!!
  • Read: Gonzales & Mark “Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness: managing multiple working sphere” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (2004) 113-120
  • There is some talk about the cost of switching (multi-tasking)
  • Comments on Twitter, essentially, most users consume it like emails (check regularly to get a “reward”).
  • Read: LaRose “The problem with media habits” Communication Theory 20 no 2 (2010) 194-222
  • Read: LaRose “A social cognitive theory of internet uses and gratifications: toward a new model of media attendance” Journal of broadcasting and electronic media 48 no 3 (2004) 358-377
  • On addiction, read: Bergmark & Findable “Extensive internet involvement - addiction or emerging lifestyle?” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 no 12 (2011) 4488-4501

• Chapter 9 - Making habits
  • Research shows that when people’s goals start to weaken, or are weak in the first place, it’s very difficult to start forming a new habit.
  • Research has shown that to dream about your goal fulfilled can create a fantasy that doesn’t help. The research (below, Oettingen and Mayer) showed that there is a difference between expecting a result and fantasizing about it. The fantasies left people thinking/feeling they had already achieved their goal and when later on they had to work on it, it felt discouraging and they quit. Expecting success is different and is a much more practical kind of thinking. Visualization (done realistically) works on the expectation side and is effective (you want to visualize you doing the work, for example, studying for the exam, not just fantasizing about getting the best grade).
  • See Oettingen and Mayer “The motivating function of thinking about the future: expectations versus fantasies” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 no 5 (2002) 1198
  • Human beings suffer from the “planning fallacy” aka things turn out to be more complicated than we expect them to be and plans always go worse than we imagine.
  • The author cautions about people biting off more than they can chew (when choosing to create a new habit). NOTE: That is something we underestimate and often encourage our participants to see bigger!
  • At the end of the day, it’s about repetitions and that requires a concrete goal to which we are committed. NOTE: we could rename our stats on counting repetitions and then reliability.
  • There are “mindset techniques” to help weed-out the fantasies and give you a firmer grasp of reality. Three were tried in a study (on problem-solving):
    • Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
    • Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
    • Contrast: first indulge, then dwell and then do a “reality check” to compare your fantasy with reality.
  • In the study, the contrast technique was the most effective BUT ONLY if the expectations of success were high. “What the contrast technique appeared to be doing was forcing people to decide whether their goal was really achievable or not. Then, if they expected to succeed, they committed to the goal; if not, they let it go.” This is somehow a good “check” on whether or not people are committed to something.
  • The author mentions how both the indulge and the dwell are difficult. Thinking about negative aspects is confronting and checking out our fantasies against reality is as well. NOTE: That’s a point in favour of a Habit Course (you won’t do this alone easily).
  • An alternative to the contrasting technique is the WOOP method. Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan. See Oettingen “Future Thought and Behavioural Change” European Review of Social Psychology 23 no 1 (2012) 1-63
  • Also read Oettingen Pak Schnetter “Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 no 2 (1999) 250-260
  • A different kind of plan: an “implementation intention” for example, inside of a goal of getting more exercise an implementation intention can be “if I see someone struggling with a stroller, then I will offer to help them”. This is much more concrete and gives you an edge. See the study for more details: Chapman Ermitage Norman “Comparing implementation intention interventions in relation to young adults’ intake of fruits and vegetables” Psychology and Health 24 no 3 (2009) 317-332
  • For more on “implementation intention” see the meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran “Implementation intention and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (2006) 69-119
  • Of course, implementation intentions also required some trial and error. Something we could do in the Habit Course.
  • The author notes that having the cue of the implementation intention (those are if X then Y) be timing is NOT a good idea. Rather, having the cue be another event is easier for us to notice whereas timing requires the use of our memory. NOTE: essentially this technique works best if the cue is another habitual behaviour e.g. arriving at work.
  • Making multi-conditional implementation intention also works (possibly even better). For example: If it’s after breakfast and there is time, then I will go for a run or ride my bicycle”.
  • A note: people who are already meticulous planners tend to benefit LESS from implementation intentions.
  • You can use implementation intention to counter a loophole as well. NOTE: That sounds awesome. Let’s try!
  • SUMMARY (implementation intentions) they are very versatile, research has demonstrated they work. They can be used for a wide range of types of plans: straight plan, planning against external obstacles (circumstances) and planning against internal obstacles (loopholes).
  • Dissatisfaction with a new habit is a real killer and has to be addressed (it's lack of progress, tiredness, demotivation, etc.)
  • Interesting conversation on reward: given that we want intrinsic, then adding an external one is a trap NOT to fall into.

• Chapter 10 - Breaking habits
  • Mindfulness is the first thing that gets discussed, right off the bat. Some advice on what is and how to practice meditation.
  • Vigilant monitoring (being present and mindful) is supported by research as the most effective SHORT TERM strategy to counter habits (if you are in the business of breaking a habit).
  • The problem with this is that thinking about NOT doing something really fights back and has you think about it even more. (What you resist not only persists, but really punches back).
  • Studies show that attempt at suppressing something (drinking, eating, etc.) will often lead to binging episodes (again, what you resist persists).
  • Useful analogy: think of a bad habit you want to change like a river that’s been following the same course for a long time. Now you want to stop it suddenly. You can’t just dam the river because the water will rise up, accumulate and eventually break through. Instead, you have to encourage the river to take a different course.
  • The notion that you can’t kill a habit is pointed to, but not explicitly.
  • Talk about willpower as a finite resource (mention of the study where participants were either resisting chocolate or not and then how much more resistance they had to a subsequent task).
  • How to deal with low willpower? Pre-commitment (give your game console to a friend when you have lots of willpower so in the night when you are weaker, there is no game console to use anyway…). NOTE: sounds weak somehow… I think because it leads to the frustration of a thwarted reward.
  • Self-Affirmation can help to replenish depleted self-control. NOTE: It seems also that there is something profound here about the occurring world. As a created act, rather than the world of survival which is automatic.
  • Changing your environment is another strategy. This example is particularly interesting: the most effective method to get people to use stairs instead of the elevator is a sign at the bottom of the stairs telling people how much more calories they burn by taking the stairs. There is something there to work with (because the reward here is intrinsic but prompted externally). That being said, if it doesn’t work immediately, then it never will as things such as notes will completely be ignored quickly (whether you changed behaviour or not).

• Chapter 11 - Healthy habits
  • Mostly all the same underlying discussion on habits only in the context of health.
  • Two points of note:
    • Self-monitoring is mentioned as the ONE dominantly successful strategy in a study with over 50’000 participants and 26 strategies tested.
    • “Habit change isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon.”

• Chapter 12 - Creative habits
  • Discussion on expertise/knowledge getting in the way of creativity.
  • QUESTION: what distinguishes a master from an expert?
  • Creativity gets stifled by too much freedom. aka creativity loves constraints
  • Read: Rothenberg A. “The Janusian process in scientific creativity” Creativity Research Journal 7, no 2 (1994) 97-110

• Chapter 13 - Happy habits
  • Lots of things boost happiness BUT IT ALL FADES AWAY EVENTUALLY! In short, if you turn something that makes you happy into a HABIT, then you LOOSE the “happy” component (habits are emotionless).
  • So what the author is pointing to is: what will up your happiness is to SWITCH IT UP. I think this is a STRONG argument for happiness being antifragile.
  • And again, mindfulness is key here (to not be a robot). NOTE: Robots are NEVER present. That’s a difference between us and them, even if we are on habits.

To read

• Ouellette & Wood ‘’Habit and intention in everyday life: the multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour’’ - Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998) 54-74
• Webb & Sheehan ‘’Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.’’ Psychological Bulletin 132, no 2 (2006) 249/268