How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life

What are the psychological mechanisms that trigger habits in daily life? Two studies reveal that strong habits are influenced by context cues associated with past performance (e.g., locations) but are relatively unaffected by current goals. Specifically, performance contexts—but not goals—automatically triggered strongly habitual behaviors in memory (Experiment 1) and triggered overt habit performance (Experiment 2). Nonetheless, habits sometimes appear to be linked to goals because people self-perceive their habits to be guided by goals. Furthermore, habits of moderate strength are automatically influenced by goals, yielding a curvilinear, U-shaped relation between habit strength and actual goal influence. Thus, research that taps self-perceptions or moderately strong habits may find habits to be linked to goals.

► Habits are automatically brought to mind by perception of performance environments.
► When a habit is brought to mind, people tend to act on it.
► Habit activation and performance are not readily influenced by people's goals.
► People believe, however, that their habits are strongly motivated by goals.
► Habits of moderate strength also are guided by goals.