Transcript Habit and the intention-behaviour relationship within the

Habit and the intention-behaviour relationship
within the Theory of Planned Behaviour:
Implications for information based
interventions
By Erica Thomas
Hypothetical relationships between physical
activity and health in children and adults
Childhood
activity
Adult
Activity
Childhood
health
Adult
health
From Blair, Clark, Cureton and Powell (1989)
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Adapted from Ajzen (2006)
A meta-analytic review of the Theory of
Planned Behaviour in physical activity
(Hagger, Chatzisarantis & Biddle, 2002)

Correlation between physical activity intentions and behaviour is
modest rc = .426.

Overall the TPB accounted for 44.5% of the variance in physical
activity intentions and only 27.4% of the variance in physical
activity behaviour.

Put another way 55.5% of the variance in physical activity
intentions and 72.6% of the variance in physical activity
behaviour is explained by factors other than those posited
within the TPB.
Path analysis diagram showing structural
relationships between the TPB variables, selfefficacy and past behaviour
Attitude
Subjective
Norm
Intention
.05**
Behaviour
PBC
SelfEfficacy
.37*
Past
Behaviour
.55*
Corrected correlations
derived by meta-analysis
Adapted from Hagger, Chatzisarantis and Biddle (2002)
Simple slope analysis illustrating how the intentionbehaviour relationship varies as a function of habit
strength
1.00
β = -.09, P > .05
B
E
0.90
STRONG
HABIT
β = .09, P > .05
0.80
β = .26, P < .003
H
A
V
0.70
MODERATE
HABIT
0.60
I
O
U
0.50
WEAK
HABIT
0.40
R
0.30
-5
-4
I
-3
N
T
-2
E
-1
N
-0
T
1
I
From Verplanken et al. (1998)
O
2
N
Is there really a link between frequency
of past behaviour and the habitual level of
that behaviour?

A high frequency of behaviour does not
necessarily imply the existence of a strong habit
e.g. an athlete may run a marathon frequently,
but this can hardly be qualified as a habit!

Equating frequency with habit implies the absurd
consequence that habit strength keeps increasing
with increasing frequency.

Habit has been shown to vary independently of
behavioural frequency e.g. Verplanken (2006).
Habits
“Are learned sequences of acts that have become
automatic responses to specific cues and are
functional in obtaining certain end goals or states”
(Verplanken & Aarts, 1999, p.104)
Conceptualization and
characteristics of habit
Bargh’s (1994) four features of automaticity
 Awareness
 Habits most often occur outside of awareness
 Controllability
 Habits can be difficult to control (but not impossible)
 Mental efficiency
 Habits are mentally efficient
 Intentionality
 Habits are intentional in the sense of being goal directed (Aarts &
Dijksterhuis, 2000)
Conceptualization and
characteristics of habit
 Environment-behaviour link
 Habit formation involves the creation of associations in memory between
actions and stable features of the context in which they are performed.
 Habits can be triggered by environmental cues, internal states and by the
presence of typical interaction partners.
 Once these links have been formed via associative learning, merely
perceiving a context triggers associated responses.
 Habits develop by the systematic experience of
rewarding consequences.
 The rewarding properties of habits make them functional from the
perspective of the individual who develops them.
 Thus habits are “wanted” in achieving some goal.
Implications for information
based interventions

Interventions based on the TPB generally use informational
strategies to promote behaviour change; However strong habits
are associated with attenuated relations between intentions and
behaviour.

Given these consequences of habituation, the presence of a
strong habit poses a contraindication to the use of informational
techniques (Verplanken & Melkevik, 2008).

Webb & Sheeran (2006) provide striking evidence in support of
this idea.

Providing information will only result in attitudinal change if one
is likely to pay attention to new information (Chaiken, 1980,
1987); yet strong habits are associated with a lack of interest
for new information (Verlpanken et al., 1997) and information
use that is biased toward maintaining the existing habit (Betsch
et al., 2001).
Implications for information
based interventions

Frequency, automaticity and functionality
make habits strong durable structures.

The prospects for interventions that consist
of providing information and aim at changing
attitudes is particularly grim when the target
behaviour is habitual.

The dependence of habits on environmental
cues represents an important point of
vulnerability.
Frequency of students exercise behaviour
after moving to a new University
1.2
Frequency of exercising
0.8
0.4
0.0
-0.4
Stable context – existing habit
-0.8
Changed context – existing habit
-1.2
Less Favourable Intentions
More Favourable Intentions
Adapted from Wood, Tam and Guerrero Witt (2005)
Recommendations

Information based interventions may be more successful if they
target individuals when they are undergoing naturally occurring
shifts in the performance environment (Verplanken & Wood,
2006). E.g. when moving to a new location.

Public policy should be orientated towards structural changes in
the performance environment itself, e.g. by providing cycle
paths to encourage cycling as a form of exercise.

To the extent that large scale environmental interventions alter
critical features of the performance environment they are likely
to be successful at disrupting unwanted habits.

New performance environments can provide a stable context to
foster the creation and maintenance of more desirable habits.
(Verplanken & Wood, 2006).
Summary and Conclusions

Understanding habit is important to public policy
concerning healthful living.

Behaviour changes strategies are most likely to be
successful when they are tailored to the habit
strength of the target behaviour (Verplanken &
Wood, 2006).

Everyday actions that are not habitual are open to
information based interventions which are designed
educate people and motivate them to change.

Strong habits perpetuate prior behaviours and limit
the effectiveness of information based interventions
(Verplanken & Wood, 2006).
Summary and Conclusions

The expectations for certain environmental and
behavioural events that develop with habit formation lead
to a kind of ‘tunnel vision’ that shields behaviour from
change through new information.

Even when consumers become convinced of the advisability
of habit change, they are likely to continue to perform any
given behaviour as long as it is automatically cued by
stable features of the performance environment.

The dependence of habit on environmental cues renders
them vulnerable to intervention strategies that involve
changes in those cues (Verplanken & Wood, 2006).

Interventions to promote physical activity in children
should adopt habituation as an intervention goal.
References
Aarts, H., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2000). The automatic activation of goal directed behaviour: The case of
travel habit. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20, 75-82.
Ajzen, I. (2006). Constructing a TPB questionnaire: Conceptual and methodological considerations.
Retrieved 10th April from http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf
Bargh, J.A. (1994). The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, intention, efficiency and control in
social cognition. In R.S. Wyer and T.K. Srull (Eds), Handbook of Social Cognition (Vol. 1). Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Betsch, T.A., Haberstroh, S., Glöckner, A., Haar, T. and Fiedler, K. (2001). The effects of routine
strength on adaptation and information search in recurrent decision making. Organizational Behaviour
and Human Decision Processes, 84, 23 - 53.
Blair, S.N., Clark, D.G., Cureton, K.J. and Powell, K.E. (1989). Exercise and fitness in childhood:
Implications for a lifetime of health. In Perspectives in Exercise and Sports Medicine, Vol.2: Youth
Exercise and Sport (edited by C.V. Gisolfi and D.R. Lamb), pp.401 430. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus
message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752 - 766.
Chaiken, S. (1987). The heuristic model of persuasion. Hillsdale, New York: Erlbaum. Conner, M., &
Armitage, C. J. (1998). Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A review and avenues for further
research. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28(15), 1429-1464.
Hagger, M. S., Chatzisarantis, N. L. D., & Biddle, S. J. H. (2002). A meta-analytic review of the Theories
of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour in physical activity: Predictive validity and the contribution of
additional variables. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 24(1), 3-32.
Verplanken, B. (2006). Beyond frequency: Habit as a mental construct. British Journal of Social
Psychology, 45, 639 – 656.
Verplanken, B. and Aarts, H. (1999). Habit, attitude and planned behaviour: Is habit an empty construct
or an interesting case of goal-directed automaticity? European Review of Social psychology, 10, 101 –
134.
Verplanken, B., Aarts, H., & Van Knippenberg, A. D. (1997). Habit, information acquisition, and the
process of making travel mode choices. European Journal of Social Psychology, 27(5), 539-560.
Verplanken, B., Aarts, H., Van Knippenberg, A. and Moonen, A. (1998). Habit versus planned behaviour: A
field experiment. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 111 – 128.
Verplanken, B. and Melkevik, O. (2008). Predicting habit: The case of physical exercise. Psychology of
sport and exercise.
Verplanken, B. and Wood, W. (2006). Interventions to break and create consumer habits. Journal of
Public Policy and Marketing, 25, (1), 90 - 103.
Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Does changing behavioural intentions engender behaviour change? A
meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 249-268.
Wood, W., Tam, L. and Guerrero Witt, M. (2005). Changing circumstances, disrupting habits. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 918 - 933.