Research paper
Wood W, Quinn JM, Kashy DA. Habits in everyday life: thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2002;83(6):1281-1297. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.83.6.1281. PMID: 12500811.
Why we cite it
The diary study behind the widely quoted habit statistic. **The paper reports two studies and two numbers — 35% in Study 1 and 43% in Study 2 — and summarises them as *"between a third and a half of all behaviors listed"*** (corrected 2026-09-02, card SP97Y7). **The authors explain the gap as an artefact of their own procedure**: the difference was *"consistent with our expectation that the procedure of listing multiple behaviors in Study 2 would encourage participants to include more activities performed habitually"* (χ² = 14.34, p < .01). **So 43% is the higher of two figures, and the one its authors attribute to a methodological choice.** Quote the range, or quote the authors' own phrase; **do not quote 43% as the finding.** The study's genuinely robust contributions are qualitative — performed almost daily in stable contexts while the mind is elsewhere. Demonstrates that habits are not just frequent behaviors but operate with genuine automaticity: during habitual actions, thoughts wander to unrelated topics, while non-habitual actions require conscious guidance. Also shows that habits reduce stress, providing self-regulatory benefits. Provides the empirical basis for the project's emphasis on building automatic eating routines rather than relying on moment-to-moment decisions.
DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.83.6.1281 · PubMed 12500811 · Publisher