The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

According to Duhigg, The Power of Habit is a book about the science of habits, meaning the history of scientific research on habit formation is of particular importance within the text. In each chapter, Duhigg dedicates a substantial amount of detail to providing the background, historical context, and set-up of scientific experiments. These research studies included subjects such as Eugene Pauly, who lost his memory, and Lisa Allen, whose brain was found to have physically changed when examined in scans. Duhigg also details studies where researchers tracked the decision-making processes of mice and monkeys. Writing about Professor Larry Squire, for example, Duhigg notes, “His and others’ research would help reveal the subconscious mechanisms that impact the countless choices that seem as if they’re the products of well-reasoned thought, but actually are influenced by urges most of us barely recognize or understand” (7).

All science points to the fact that our brains run on habit loops. These habits are deeply ingrained but changeable. Duhigg shows that cutting-edge neuroscience research undermines the trendy “21 days to a new habit” types of programs. The science shows that changing our habits has little to do with time and far more to do with rewiring our brains.

Duhigg argues that neuroscience research and private companies are in direct conversation, meaning that the findings coming out of universities and labs are quickly applied to the world of consumerism. Marketing experts, in particular, closely track what scientists are discovering about the brain and its habits. In the past, the public has been excluded from such conversations, meaning companies like Target and Proctor and Gamble understand far more about our personal behaviors than we do. The Power of Habit, however, lets the public in on that conversation.

For over a century, corporations have drawn on human habits to better market their goods. A majority of Duhigg’s chosen case studies highlight the intimate relationship between companies and consumers, meaning this theme is an important one for the author. Consumers are often unaware of the significant research that corporations undertake to successfully insert new goods, such as Febreze, into individuals’ daily habits.

To exemplify this relationship between corporations and consumers, Duhigg reaches back in time to the story of Claude C. Hopkins, who in the early 20th century convinced Americans to begin brushing their teeth with toothpaste. Every successful company has since employed some form “Hopkins’s rules” to sell its goods. Namely, the company needs to determine the consumer’s habit loops—the cue, routine, and reward—and then insert their product into that loop.

Corporations keep a close eye on new developments in the field of neuroscience and habit formation to more successfully market their products to consumers. Companies understand that cravings, in particular, ignite a habit loop. The efficacy of such a relationship, however, is often muddled. In the case of Target’s aiming baby advertisements at women the company suspects to be pregnant, Duhigg writes that “not all women are enthusiastic about a computer program scrutinizing their reproductive plans. Not everyone, it turns out, thinks mathematical mind reading is cool” (184).

Ultimately, Duhigg adopts a neutral moral stance on corporations’ targeting of consumer habits. Because companies have for decades used neurological habit research to sell their products, their continued use of the practice is almost a foregone conclusion.