Habits

Habits: Overview

Habits are actions or thoughts we do without thinking, planning, or being motivated. Whether it's brushing your teeth in the morning (including the way you move your toothbrush around your mouth), walking the same route to the shops (and buying the same groceries), driving a route home, or taking the dog for a walk after work, habits play a significant role in our daily lives.

From a neuroscience perspective, habits are routines, behaviours or cognitive processes performed quickly and automatically. They free up our limited cognitive resources for more novel, complex or engaging tasks.

Habits make us efficient. However, their inflexibility makes adapting to new situations or learning new skills challenging. Bad habits are often the root cause of our failed attempts at behaviour change.

Researchers have noted that around half of our actions and thoughts are habitual — they're repeated daily and in the same context.

The Neuroscience of Habits

The Habit Loop

Understanding habits begins with recognising the habit loop, a concept fundamental to forming habits. During habit formation, the loop consists of four elements:

Cue: Every habit is initiated by a cue, which triggers the brain to initiate a behaviour. These cues can be as varied as a location, a time of day, an emotional state, or the company of particular people.
Routine: Following the cue, the routine is the behaviour itself that you perform. Routines can be physical (e.g., brushing teeth), cognitive (e.g., self-critical thoughts), or emotional (e.g., nervousness before a public speech).
Reward: Rewards come in many forms, such as the fulfilment from completing a task, indulging a desire, or the comfort of evading a challenging scenario. The feeling of reward reinforces the habit loop, making the action more likely to be repeated.
Repetition: Habits are reinforced through repetition. Over time, repetition creates neural pathways or ‘loops’ that make the routine easier and more efficient.

Once a habit is formed, rewards and repetition become less critical. For a well-established habit or automated behaviour, the cue automatically elicits the routine without a need for feelings of reward.

Brain Networks for Habits

Two brain regions are involved in habit formation: the prefrontal cortex PFC and relevant motor (movement networks) and the basal ganglia.

The PFC is very busy when you are trying to learn a new skill, navigate a new place, or solve a mental problem. As the habit begins to form, the PFC's role decreases.

The basal ganglia, a group of nuclei deep below the cortex, play a pivotal role in habit formation. The basal ganglia run behavioural routines that have become automatic.

Habitual, automated behaviours become ‘outsourced’ to the basal ganglia, requiring less conscious effort. This shift makes acquiring new skills feel difficult compared to performing old habits, which feels natural and easy.

Dopamine as a Teaching Signal

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is released in varying amounts during the habit cycle. It acts as a reward signal that is essential for habit formation. Over time, dopamine response shifts in anticipation of the reward, creating a sense of craving that propels the routine.

As habits become established, dopamine plays a decreasing role. And the feeling of 'ease' reflects the lack of attention or motivation required.

Synapse Plasticity

Repetition of a behaviour strengthens the synaptic connections between neurons involved in the habit loop. Thanks to the rules of neuroplasticity, connections between neurons (synapses) subserving a behaviour that is used repeatedly are strengthened. In contrast, connections subserving behaviours rarely repeated are used less and pruned away.

Synapse strengthening, turning and pruning are summed up by the famous adages, "Neurons that fire together, wire together," and "Neurons that are out of sync, fail to link."

Strategies for Habit Formation and Change

Forming New Habits

Developing new habits requires intention and structure. The steps include:

Identify a cue: Establish a consistent trigger or cue that will prompt the behaviour.
Define a routine: Choose an action or behaviour that responds to the cue.
Set a reward: Determine a positive outcome or ‘celebration’ that will follow the routine.
Repeat: To strengthen the habit loop, practice the behaviour in response to the cue (then practice and practice some more).

Remember that habit formation rarely sticks to a schedule (and is unlikely to take the famed 21 days!). One study of university students found it took anywhere from 18 to 254 days (average 66 days) for a new behaviour to become automatic.

Breaking Bad Habits

Unwanted habits are at the root of many failed attempts at behaviour change.

Struggling to change established habits doesn't signify a lack of will or persistence; instead, it's because our environment continues to trigger old patterns. Even as we form new habits, the original neural pathways remain in the brain, akin to our lasting ability to ride a bike.

Changing entrenched behaviours involves understanding and manipulating the habit loop. You can intervene at various stages in the habit loop.

Recognise your triggers: Identify the cues that initiate the unwanted routine.
Practice a new habit: Design a positive routine that responds to your identified cue.
Or, change the context: Modify your environment to disrupt the old habit loop. A rare but opportune time for habit change is when you move house or job.
Or, avoid the trigger: Whenever possible, eliminate the cues from your surroundings.

Additional Strategies for Behaviour Change

Incorporating these strategies may help solidify the changes:

Habit stacking: Linking new behaviours to established habits can streamline the formation of new routines.
Consistency and reward: Regular practice in the same context solidifies new habits, while rewards provide motivation.
Managing your stress responses: Recognising that prolonged or excessive stress can cause a reversion to old habits.
Accountability: A social support system can provide motivation and help maintain new habits.
Variable reward schedules: Reward unpredictability can enhance motivation and anticipation, much like how our ancestors remained motivated to forage for food despite irregular finds. And just as unexpected emails keep us checking our inbox, or how surprise quizzes encourage consistent studying.

Relevance to coaching practice

Understanding the neurobiology of habits is useful for coaching. It provides insights into how habits form in the brain, and the conditions required for habit change. This knowledge helps coaches recognise the effort and timeframes required to rewire neural pathways for habit change. It's key for developing realistic strategies that ensure sustainable behavioural changes.

Using methods based on neurobiology can also make coaching much more effective. Neuroscience ideas like repetition and reinforcement show how important it is to practise new behaviours. Coaches can share evidence-based neuroscience-informed strategies with their clients, such as identifying triggers, habit-stacking or ensuring the new behaviour is rewarding.

Habits: Summary

Behaviour change professionals can better guide their clients towards positive change by understanding the intricate dance of cues, routines, rewards, and repetition that constitutes habit formation. It's a blend of neuroscience and practice that, when applied thoughtfully, can yield transformative results.

The Neuro Nudges team wish you all the best in your habit-making or breaking journey!

Recommended Resources

Academic

Albarracín & Granados Samayoa (2024). Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1-16. Find the overview here.
Gardner et al. (2012). Making health habitual: The psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice. The British Journal of General Practice, 62(605), 664-666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466
Graybiel & Smith. (2014). How the brain makes and breaks habits. Scientific American, 310(6).
Schwabe & Wolf. (2009). Stress Prompts Habit Behavior in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(22), 7191–7198. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0979-09.2009
Wood & Runger. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417