Habit

A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

"[8] In 1890, William James, a pioneering philosopher and psychologist, addressed the subject of habit in his book, The Principles of Psychology.

[11] There are four main components to habit formation: the context cue, craving, behavioral repetition, and the reward.

[12] The context cue can be a prior action, time of day, location, or anything that triggers the habitual behavior.

For example, Habitica uses gamification, implementing strategies found in video games to real-life tasks by adding rewards such as experience and gold.

[16] However, a review of such tools suggests most are poorly designed with respect to theory and fail to support the development of automaticity.

[17] Shopping habits are particularly vulnerable to change at "major life moments" like graduation, marriage, the birth of the first child, moving to a new home, and divorce.

For example, identifying as the type of person who takes care of their body and is in the habit of exercising regularly, can also influence eating better and using credit cards less.

[18] A recent study by Adriaanse et al. found that habits mediate the relationship between self-control and unhealthy snack consumption.

[19] The results of the study empirically demonstrate that high self-control may influence the formation of habits and in turn affect behavior.

Specifically, the associative learning underlying habits is characterized by the slow, incremental accrual of information over time in procedural memory.

[22] Anxiety is a disorder characterized by excessive and unexpected worry that negatively impacts individuals' daily life and routines.

[25] Rather than merely attempting to eliminate a bad habit, it may be more productive to seek to replace it with a healthier coping mechanism.

An example of a habit loop is: TV program ends (cue), go to the fridge (routine), eat a snack (reward).