Study Sunday: Habits Drive Decision-Making

🤔 The Question

Do you really know why you do what you do? A new study finds that we consistently underestimate the degree to which our actions are driven by habit. 

⚡️ The Findings  

In two experiments, people mainly ascribed their actions and decisions to their feelings and intentional choices. For example, they said they were drinking coffee because they were tired, or that they refused to help the researchers when asked because they were in a bad mood.

But analyses revealed that habit strength was actually a much stronger driver of behavior, and yet it was consistently unacknowledged as the true cause. 

🧪 The Study

Two experiments were conducted: