ArticlePloS one2016
Habit Discontinuity, Self-Activation, and the Diminishing Influence of Context Change: Evidence from the UK Understanding Society Survey.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Longitudinal Study Examining Physical Activity Habit Formation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sustained improvements in human-cat interaction in the shelter sector: a study of a best-practice educational intervention.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Maintaining habitual physical activity by overcoming disruptive competing actions: mechanisms and interventions.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- New year as a moment of change in pro-environmental product consumption: evaluating the habit discontinuity and self-activation hypotheses using a large UK retail dataset.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Encouraging water-saving behavior during a "Moment of Change": the efficacy of implementation intentions on water conservation during the transition to university.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The inclusion of habits in the stage model of self-regulated behavior change: an investigation of life events and red meat consumption in the UK.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Context Stability in Habit Building Increases Automaticity and Goal Attainment.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Disruptive Communication as a Means to Engage Children in Solving Environmental Challenges: A Case Study on Plastic Pollution.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Looking Through the COVID-19 Window of Opportunity: Future Scenarios Arising From the COVID-19 Pandemic Across Five Case Study Sites.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- A qualitative study of community perspectives surrounding cleaning practices in the context of Zika prevention in El Salvador: implications for community-based Aedes aegypti control.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Increasing Physical Activity in Empty Nest and Retired Populations Online: A Randomized Feasibility Trial Protocol.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Judgments of a Product's Quality and Perceptions of User Experience Can Be Mediated by Brief Messaging That Matches the Person's Pre-existing Attitudes.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- The impact of parenthood on environmental attitudes and behaviour: a longitudinal investigation of the legacy hypothesis.Population and environmentArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Repeated behaviours in stable contexts can become automatic habits. Habits are resistant to information-based techniques to change behaviour, but are contextually cued, so a change in behaviour context (e.g., location) weakens habit strength and can facilitate greater consideration of the behaviour. This idea was demonstrated in previous work, whereby people with strong environmental attitudes have lower car use, but only after recently moving home. We examine the habit discontinuity hypothesis by analysing the Understanding Society dataset with 18,053 individuals representative of the UK population, measuring time since moving home, travel mode to work, and strength of environmental attitudes. Results support previous findings where car use is significantly lower among those with stronger environmental views (but only after recently moving home), and in addition, demonstrate a trend where this effects decays as the time since moving home increases. We discuss results in light of moving into a new home being a potential 'window of opportunity' to promote pro-environmental behaviours.
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