Habit Discontinuity Hypothesis and Green Behaviors, Professor Emeritus Bas Verplanken PhD Ep61

Our guest today is Professor Emeritus Bas Verplaken from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. He’s very much an elder in the study of attitude and habits in relation to health and human behavior and he has also been the editor of the book, The Psychology of Habits. 

We discuss "Habit Discontinuity Hypothesis" which is a phenomenon whereby people are more apt to adopt new behaviors when their daily lives are disrupted, meaning some kind of discontinuity occurs, like moving house or moving job. 

Bas and I talk about the importance of habits in addressing sustainability through the perspective that habits are unconscious and immediate behaviors we do without thinking about too much versus behaviors that take thought and consideration.

To understand habits is to also understand that kind of “behavioral muscle memory,” how it is formed, and how to break them.

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How to Save the World is a podcast about the psychology of what gets people to do eco-behaviors and take climate action: Environmental engineer, designer, and author, Katie Patrick, hunts down the latest behavioral science literature from top universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford to unearth the evidence-based teachings you can use to rapidly get more people to adopt your environmental campaign, program, or product.
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