Empowering interventions to promote sustainable lifestyles: Testing the habit discontinuity hypothesis in a field experiment

By Bas Verplanken, Deborah Roy. 2016

385 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This study tested the habit discontinuity hypothesis, which states that behaviour change interventions are more effective when delivered in the context of life course changes. The assumption was that when habits are (temporarily) disturbed, people are more sensitive to new information and adopt a mind-set that is conducive to behaviour change. A field experiment was conducted among 800 participants, who received either an intervention promoting sustainable behaviours, or were in a no-intervention control condition. In both conditions half of the households had recently relocated, and were matched with households that had not relocated. Self-reported frequencies of twenty-five environment-related behaviours were assessed at baseline and eight weeks later. While controlling for past behaviour, habit strength, intentions, perceived control, biospheric values, personal norms, and personal involvement, the intervention was more effective among recently relocated participants. The results suggested that the duration of the ‘window of opportunity’ was three months after relocation.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Human-Computer Interaction

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/631b6b8474aa85d12872822cddf8a783ce714a9b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. Susanne Stoll-Kleemann
2. C. Abraham
3. Christin Hoffmann
4. Susan J. Ball
5. M. White
6. S. Skippon
7. Michael H. Morris
8. Susan Michie

In Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

1. S. Skippon
2. Susanne Stoll-Kleemann
3. C. Abraham
4. Christin Hoffmann
5. Susan J. Ball
6. M. White

In Human-Computer Interaction

1. Susanne Stoll-Kleemann

Citations in the corpus

• Entrepreneurship Education in a Poverty Context: An Empowerment Perspective (2019, background): “In addition, by removing them from their habitual contexts, habit discontinuity would suggest that the chances for behavioral change are enhanced (Verplanken et al. 2008; Verplanken and Roy 2016).”
• Feasible Options for Behavior Change Toward More Effective Ocean Literacy: A Systematic Review (2019, background): “Habits are highly unconscious and embedded in routines and social practices (Heimlich and Ardoin, 2008; Southerton, 2013; Verplanken and Roy, 2016).”
• What cognitive mechanisms predict travel mode choice? A systematic review with meta-analysis (2017, background): “For instance, a series of studies by Verplanken and colleagues (Verplanken & Roy, 2016; Verplanken et al., 2008; Walker, Thomas, & Verplanken, 2015) into the habit discontinuity hypothesis have demonstrated how contextual changes, for example, moving home or offices, can weaken habits.”