Achieving ambitious CO2 emission reductions require changing mundane consumer behaviors in addition to increasing modern technology’s energy-saving potential. Frequently, energy-related behaviors, however, may occur highly and thus tend to become habitual. On basis of the notion that habits represent automatic reactions to situations, and hence, are hard to control, we examined whether the capability to perform or abstain from performing actions depends on the type of habit established. We tested whether an acting habit (switching off the light upon leaving a room) supports execution of the intention to act (switching it off), but hinders the intention to abstain from acting (not switching it off). Conversely, a habit of not switching off the light (a non-acting habit) is expected to obstruct execution of the intention to switch the light off, but facilitates the intention to not switch it off. Results support these ideas, and underscore the importance of differentiating between habits resulting from frequently acting and frequently not acting.
AartsH.CustersR. (2009). Habit, action and consciousness. In BanksW. P. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of consciousness (Vol. 1, pp. 315-328). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
2.
AartsH.DijksterhuisA. (2000a). Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal-directed behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 53-63.
3.
AartsH.DijksterhuisA. (2000b). The automatic activation of goal-directed behaviour: The case of travel habit. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20, 75-82.
4.
AartsH.DijksterhuisA.MiddenC. (1999). To plan or not to plan? Goal achievement or interrupting the performance of mundane behaviors. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 971-979.
5.
AartsH.PaulussenT.SchaalmaH. (1997). Physical exercise habit: On the conceptualization and formation of habitual health behaviours. Health Education Research: Theory & Practice, 12, 363-374.
6.
AartsH.VerplankenB.van KnippenbergA. (1998). Predicting behavior from actions in the past: Repeated decision making or a matter of habit?Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1356-1375.
7.
AbrahamseW.StegL.VlekC.RothengatterT (2005). A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 273-291.
8.
AndersonJ. R. (1983). On the architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
AustinJ. T.VancouverJ. B. (1996). Goal constructs in psychology: Structure, process, and content. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 338-375.
10.
BambergS. (2002). Effects of implementation intentions on the actual performance of new environmentally friendly behaviours—results of two field experiments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 22, 399-411.
11.
BambergS. (2006). Is a residential relocation a good opportunity to change people’s travel behavior? Results from a theory-driven intervention study. Environment and Behavior, 38, 820-840.
12.
BambergS.SchmidtP. (2003). Incentives, morality, or habit? Predicting students’ car use for University routes with the models of Ajzen, Schwartz, and Triandis. Environment and Behavior, 35, 264-285.
13.
BarghJ. A. (1990). Automotives: Preconscious determinants of thought and behavior. In: HigginsE. T.SorrentinoR. M. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (Vol. 2, pp. 93-130). New York, NY: Guilford.
14.
BarghJ. A. (1994). The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, intention, efficiency and control in social cognition. In WyerR. SJr.SrullT. K. (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (2nd ed., pp. 1-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
15.
BarghJ. A.GollwitzerP. M. (1994). Environmental control of goal-directed action: Automatic and strategic contingencies between situations and behavior. In SpauldingW. D. (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 41, pp. 71-124). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
16.
BertoldiP.RicciA.de AlmeidaA. (2000). Energy efficiency in household appliances and iighting. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
17.
BrandimonteM. A.EinsteinG. O.McDanielM. A. (1996). Prospective memory: Theory and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
18.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. G. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behaviors. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
19.
DarbyS. (2000). Making it obvious: Designing feedback into energy consumption. In BertoldiP.RicciA.de AlmeidaA. (Eds.), Energy efficiency in household appliances and lighting (pp. 685-696). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
20.
FishbeinM.AjzenI. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
GilbertD. T. (1989). Thinking lightly about others: Automatic components of the social inference process. In UlemanJ. S.BarghJ. A. (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 189-211). New York, NY: Guilford.
23.
GollwitzerP. M. (1993). Goal achievement: The role of intentions. In StroebeW.HewstoneM. (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 141-185). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
24.
GollwitzerP. M.BrandstätterV. (1997). Implementation intentions and effective goal pursuit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 186-199.
25.
GollwitzerP. M.SheeranP. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119.
26.
GraybielA. M. (1998). The basal ganglia and chunking of action repertoires. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 70, 119-136.
HerringH. (2006). Energy efficiency—A critical view. Energy, 31, 10-20.
29.
HollandR. W.AartsH.LangendamD. (2006). Breaking and creating habits on the working floor: A field-experiment on the power of implementation intentions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 776-783.
30.
JamesW. (1890). The principles of psychology. London: Macmillan.
31.
JogM. S.KubotaY.ConnollyC. I.HillegaartV.GraybielA. M. (1999). Building neural representations of habits. Science, 286, 1745-1749.
32.
KlöcknerC. A.MatthiesE. (2004). How habits interfere with norm-directed behaviour: A normative decision-making model for travel mode choice. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 319-327.
33.
KnussenC.YuleF.MacKenzieJ.WellsM. (2004). An analysis of intentions to recycle household waste: The roles of past behaviour, perceived habit, and perceived lack of facilities. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 237-246.
34.
LockeE. A.LathamG. P. (1990). A theory of goal-setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
35.
MacreaC. N.BodenhausenG. V.MilneA. B.JettenJ. (1994). Out of mind but back in sight: Stereotypes on the rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 808-817.
36.
MatthiesE.KuhnS.KlöcknerC. A. (2002). Travel mode choice of women: The result of limitation, ecological norm, or weak habit?Environment and Behavior, 34, 163-177
37.
MittalB. (1988). Achieving higher seat belt usage: The role of habit in bridging the attitude-behavior gap. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18, 993-1016.
38.
NormanD. A. (1981). Categorization of action slips. Psychological Review, 88, 1-15.
39.
OrbellS.HodgkinsS.SheeranP. (1997). Implementation intentions and the theory of planned behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 945-954.
40.
OuelletteJ. A.WoodW. (1998). Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behavior predicts future behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 54-74.
41.
PosnerM. I.SnyderC. R. R. (1975). Attention and cognitive control. In SolsoR. L. (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 55-85). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
42.
ReasonJ. (1979). Actions not as planned: The price of automatization. In UnderwoodG.StevensR. (Eds.), Aspects of conciousness (pp. 67-89). London: Academic Press.
43.
RonisD. L.YatesJ. F.KirschtJ. P. (1989). Attitudes, decisions, and habits as determinants of repeated behavior. In PratkanisA. R.BrecklerS. J.GreenwaldA. G. (Eds.), Attitude structure and function (pp. 213-239). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
44.
SchankR. C.AbelsonR. P. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding: An inquiry into human knowledge structures. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
45.
ShiffrinR. M.DumaisS. (1981). The development of automatism. In AndersonJ. R. (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition (pp. 111-140). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
46.
ShiffrinR. M.SchneiderW. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127-190.
47.
SkinnerB. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
48.
TriandisH. C. (1977). Interpersonal behavior. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
49.
TriandisH. C. (1980). Values, attitudes, and interpersonal behavior. In: HoweH. E.Jr.PageM. (Eds.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 27, pp. 195-259). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
50.
VallacherR. R.WegnerD. M. (1987). What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior. Psychological Review, 94, 3-15.
51.
VerplankenB.AartsH. (1999). Habit, attitudes, and planned behaviour. Is habit an empty construct or an interesting case of goal-directed automaticity?European Review of Social Psychology, 10, 101-134.
52.
VerplankenB.OrbellS. (2003). Reflections on past behavior: A self-report index of habit strength. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1313-1330.
53.
WatsonJ. B. (1914). Behavior: An introduction to comparative behavior. New York, NY: Holt.
54.
WebbT. L.SheeranP. (2007). How do implementation intentions promote goal attainment? A test of component processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 295-302.
55.
WegnerD. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.
56.
WegnerD. M.BarghJ. A. (1998). Control and automaticity in social life. In GilbertD. T.FiskeS. T.LindzeyG. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 446-496). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
57.
WoodW.QuinnJ. M.KashyD. A. (2002). Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1281-1297.
58.
WyerR. S.SrullT. (1989). Memory and cognition in its social context. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
