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 habit statistic (widely quoted removed 2026-09-19: no count was attached). *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 Quote the range, or quote the authors' own phrase; do not quote 43% as the finding.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. During habitual actions, thoughts wandered to unrelated topics, "presumably because they did not have to consciously guide their actions"; during non-habitual actions thoughts matched the behaviour, "suggesting that thought was necessary to guide action". Habitual behaviour was associated with lesser feelings of stress. (Corrected 2026-09-19. This read "Demonstrates that habits … operate with genuine automaticity … non-habitual actions require conscious guidance. Also shows that habits reduce stress": the abstract's presumably and suggesting* had dropped, and an association had become a cause.) 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