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Habits are the holy grail of behaviour change

Habits are automatic and repetitive – we do them without fully registering our actions. For organisations chasing long-lasting behaviour change, knowing this is important. We don’t want people to stop speeding for a week or stop smoking for just a night, we want to change behaviours for a lifetime.

That’s where habits come in. If we switch one-off behaviours into automatic and repeated habits, we can help create behaviour change that sticks.  

New users vs. Existing users  

When it comes to habitual behaviour, there’s a big difference between strengthening an existing habit compared to getting someone to start a new habit.  

Picture yourself moving to a new city. You're trying to organise your first trip on their public transport network – you need to get a transport card, learn your route and find out where your stop is. It’s a very different proposition to increasing existing users as they already have a car and know their public transport routes in their area.  

Starting new habits  

When it comes to starting a new behaviour for first-time users, there are some key considerations and barriers to overcome. Particularly when it comes to harnessing disruption, overcoming uncertainty and dialling up the rewards.  

So we set out to add an additional layers of thinking to habits, based on the well-established habit loop by Charles Duhigg, and answer the question 'how can the habit loop be adapted for first-time behaviours?'  

To better understand how cues and rewards can be applied to first-time behaviors, we analysed five different habit models and over 60 case studies. Through this work, we identified a clear checklist to consider when encouraging new habits.

A checklist for starting new habits

Cues  

• Disruption: Taking advantage of a disruption to the status quo is the prime time to intill a new habit. Consider key events that change how people live their lives – employment changes, moving house, having a child/grandchild, health events, holidays or studying.  

• Social support: Seeing others carrying out the desired behaviour can help prompt others, such as friends, family, and colleagues, especially if they have trusted messengers. Consider dialing up referrals, ratings, recommendations or support and guidance from others?

Behaviour

• Reduce uncertainty: Ambiguity aversion is our tendency to dislike uncertainty and opt for what’s known. For first-time users signal what to expect, give them confidence, reassurance and reduce uncertainty.  

• Trial and practice: Give new users opportunities to trial and practice the new behaviour so they feel confident going forward. Consider trials, lessons, demonstrations, how-to-guides and tutorials.  

Rewards

• Dial up the rewards: First-time users often need further incentives and rewards to commit to trying a new behaviour. What could dial up the rewards and add further incentives for first-time users?

• Immediacy: The timing of the reward is important – providing a reward immediately after the behaviour can forge a strong positive association. What could bring the reward even closer to the behaviour?

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