Interesting study that challenges assumptions about #habit formation and bhvr maintenance. But it raises a broader issue about definition and interpretation... 1/6 https://twitter.com/katy_milkman/status/1390273750759874561

my interpretation is that forming a habit was not best for exercise maintenance, not that flexibility is better for forming a habit. Habit ≠ bhvr maintenance 2/6

If it’s done flexibly and non-routinely, then by definition it’s not habit, even if conducive to maintenance. Ofc, we can change our definition of habit if we want, but if we depart from ‘traditional’ definition of habit (context-cued automatic action), then 3/6

we a) adopt a definition different to that used in work on habit in other areas of psych (eg bhvrl neuroscience), so 4/6

b) insights from other areas don’t apply entirely to the phenomenon we are studying in social/health psych, which prevents integration of findings across fields 5/6

& c) we prevent understanding of the limitations of habit formation (as traditionally defined) as a mechanism for bhvr change. Nice paper on the habit/maintenance distinction: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597820303885 6/6