Less is more: The effect of multiple implementation intentions targeting unhealthy snacking habits
Open accessAbstract
Implementation intentions have been shown to effectively change counter‐intentional habits. Research has, however, almost solely been concerned with the effectiveness of a single plan. In the present research, we investigated the behavioral and cognitive implications of making multiple implementation intentions targeting unhealthy snacking habits and its underlying processes, linking multiple habitual snacking cues to healthy alternatives. Study 1 revealed that formulating multiple implementation intentions was not effective in decreasing unhealthy snacking, whereas formulating a single plan successfully induced behavior change. By using a lexical decision task in Study 2, it was found that when making a single plan, but not multiple plans, the healthy alternative became cognitively more accessible in response to a critical cue prime than the habitual response. However, when making additional plans in an unrelated domain, the negative effects of making multiple plans were absent. In sum, the current findings suggest that formulating multiple implementation intentions is ineffective when changing unwanted behavior. These reduced effects of multiple implementation intentions do not occur when making the plan but are rather due to interference in the enacting phase of the planning process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.
Cites
Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans.
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.54.7.493 · Cited by 5,478 · see citing works
Wyer, R. S., & Srull, T. K. (2014) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315807102 · Cited by 4,211 · see citing works
Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.249 · Cited by 3,732 · see citing works
Ouellette, J. A., & Wood, W. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.1.54 · Cited by 3,480 · see citing works
Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes
Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(06)38002-1 · Cited by 3,236 · see citing works
Reflections on Past Behavior: A Self‐Report Index of Habit Strength <sup>1</sup>
Verplanken, B., & Orbell, S. (2003) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01951.x · Cited by 2,030 · see citing works
Bargh, J. A. (1994) · Cited by 1,581 · see citing works
Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal-directed behavior.
Aarts, H., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.1.53 · Cited by 1,248 · see citing works
Pursuing Personal Goals: Skills Enable Progress, but Not all Progress is Beneficial
Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1998) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672982412006 · Cited by 768 · see citing works
Beyond frequency: Habit as mental construct
Verplanken, B. (2006) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1348/014466605x49122 · Cited by 648 · see citing works
The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions
Sheeran, P., Webb, T. L., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2005) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167204271308 · Cited by 597 · see citing works
Attaining personal goals: Self-concordance plus implementation intentions equals success.
Koestner, R., Lekes, N., Powers, T. A., & Chicoine, E. (2002) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.1.231 · Cited by 526 · see citing works
Rage and reason: the psychology of the intuitive prosecutor
Goldberg, J. H., Lerner, J. S., & Tetlock, P. E. (1999) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199908/09)29:5/6 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
Adriaanse, M. A., Vinkers, C. D. W., De Ridder, D. T. D., Hox, J. J., & De Wit, J. B. F. (2011) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.10.012 · Cited by 455 · see citing works
Self-citationHolland, R. W., Aarts, H., & Langendam, D. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2005.11.006 · Cited by 350 · see citing works
Implementation Intentions and Shielding Goal Striving From Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings
Achtziger, A., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2008) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167207311201 · Cited by 348 · see citing works
The fan effect: New results and new theories.
Anderson, J. R., & Reder, L. M. (1999) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/0096-3445.128.2.186 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Breaking Habits With Implementation Intentions: A Test of Underlying Processes
Adriaanse, M. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., de Ridder, D. T. D., de Wit, J. B. F., & Kroese, F. M. (2011) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167211399102 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Self-citationEvidence that implementation intentions reduce dietary fat intake: A randomized trial.
Armitage, C. J. (2004) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.23.3.319 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Webb, T. L., Sheeran, P., & Łuszczyńska, A. (2008) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1348/014466608x370591 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Adriaanse, M. A., de Ridder, D. T. D., & de Wit, J. B. F. (2008) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167208325612 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Self-citationMaintenance of dietary behavior change.
Kumanyika, S., Bowen, D. J., Rolls, B. J., Horn, L. V., Perri, M. G., Czajkowski, S. M., & SCHRON, E. B. (2000) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/0278-6133.19.suppl1.42 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Eating behavior: lessons from the real world of humans
de Castro, J. M. (2000) · Nutrition · doi:10.1016/s0899-9007(00)00414-7 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Jackson, C., Lawton, R., Knapp, P., Raynor, D. K., Conner, M. T., Lowe, C., & Closs, S. J. (2004) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.10.014 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
The power of habits: Unhealthy snacking behaviour is primarily predicted by habit strength
Verhoeven, A. A. C., Adriaanse, M. A., Evers, C., & de Ridder, D. T. D. (2012) · British Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8287.2012.02070.x · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Self-citationBridging the intention–behavior gap: Inducing implementation intentions through persuasive appeals
Fennis, B. M., Adriaanse, M. A., Stroebe, W., & Pol, B. (2011) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2010.12.003 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Self-citationde Vet, E., Oenema, A., & Brug, J. (2011) · Psychology of sport and exercise · doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2011.02.008 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals
Dalton, A. N., & Spiller, S. A. (2012) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/664500 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Telling what they want to know: participants tailor causal attributions to researchers' interests
Ara Norenzayan, A., & Schwarz, N. (1999) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199912)29:8 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
de Vet, E., Oenema, A., Sheeran, P., & Brug, J. (2009) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/1479-5868-6-11 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
The More the Better? The Number of Plans Predicts Health Behaviour Change
Wiedemann, A. U., Lippke, S., Reuter, T., Ziegelmann, J. P., & Schüz, B. (2010) · Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being · doi:10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01042.x · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Wiedemann, A. U., Lippke, S., & Schwarzer, R. (2011) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s10865-011-9364-2 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Maintenance of dietary behavior change.
Kumanyika, S., Bowen, D. J., Rolls, B. J., et al. (2000) · Health Psychology · doi:10.1037//0278-6133.19.suppl1.42 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Getting things done: Self-regulatory processes in goal pursuit
Webb, T. L. (2006) · Social Psychological Review · doi:10.53841/bpsspr.2006.8.1.2 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Open questions in implementation intention research
Gollwitzer, P. M. (2006) · Social Psychological Review · doi:10.53841/bpsspr.2006.8.1.14 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Gardner, B. (2015) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2013.876238 · Cited by 1,016 · see citing works
Morrison, L. G., Hargood, C., Lin, S. X., Dennison, L., Joseph, J., Hughes, S., Michaelides, D. T., Johnston, D., Johnston, M., Michie, S., et al. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3579 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
- Authors
- Verhoeven, A. A. C., Adriaanse, M. A., de Ridder, D. T. D., de Vet, E., & Fennis, B. M.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Utrecht University The Netherlands
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Verhoeven, Aukje A. C.
- Venue
- European Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-07-02
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 344-354
- ISSN
- 0046-2772 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0992
- OpenAlex
- W1948358455
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 7.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.wur.nl
- Locations
- European Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Keywords
- implementation intentions, unhealthy snacking, habit change, healthy food alternatives, cognitive accessibility, lexical decision, behavior change
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
