Habit

Habits are automated routines or behaviors that are repeated regularly. Habits are learned by both humans and across mammalian species through a repetitive process that primes the cognitive processors found in each person’s procedural memory. Some habit studies have found that as much as 45 percent of everyday behavior tends to be repeated in the same manner and in the same location almost every day. Automaticity is demonstrated as habit efficiency and doer unawareness and unintentionality. Consistency in repetition is required. More complex habits such as exercise will take longer to acquire than more simple ones such as eating.

Every habit begins with a psychological pattern termed a habit loop—a three-phase process: (1) a cue triggers the brain to go into an automatic mode and permit ...