Old Habits Die Hard: Travel Habit Formation and Decay During an Office Relocation
Open accessAbstract
Workers at a pro-environmental charity in the United Kingdom were evaluated 19 months before the organization moved its headquarters to another town, and then evaluated again 1 and 4 weeks after the move. Travel habit (behavioral automaticity) weakened immediately after the move, and this was equal for those who changed travel mode during the relocation and those who did not. In those who changed mode, habit strength for the old mode did not disappear abruptly but rather decayed over the post-move period, whereas habit strength for the new mode grew concurrently. This demonstrates that even when overt behavior changes during a transition event, the underlying behavioral automaticity does not disappear immediately. Rather, there is a period during which habit for the new behavior becomes established and habit for the old behavior decays. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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The central challenge is that old habits continue to be activated automatically by recurring environmental cues.
“The central challenge is that old habits continue to be activated automatically by recurring environmental cues ( J. Labrecque and W. Wood, unpublished observation; Walker et al. 2014).”
From Psychology of Habit. (2016) · cites this paper as Walker et al. 2014
Cites
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Reflections on Past Behavior: A Self‐Report Index of Habit Strength <sup>1</sup>
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Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417 · Cited by 1,445 · see citing works
Human capital and industrialization: Evidence from the age of enlightenment
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Attitudes, habits, and behavior change
Verplanken, B., & Orbell, S. (2022) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-020821-011744 · Cited by 368 · see citing works
Self-citationModelling Habit Formation and Its Determinants
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- Authors
- Walker, I., Thomas, G. O., & Verplanken, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Bath (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Walker, Ian
- Venue
- Environment and Behavior
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-09-15
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1089-1106
- ISSN
- 0013-9165 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-390X
- OpenAlex
- W2034992247
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 30.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Environment and Behavior (publishedVersion)
- The University of Bath Online Publications Store (The University of Bath) (submittedVersion)
- Pure (University of Bath) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Transportation Planning and Optimization
- Keywords
- behavioral habits, habit strength, mode choice, mode switching, relocation, pro-environmental behavior, travel behavior, habit formation
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