When examining any phenomenon you must properly define what you are examining. A good example of the problems that arise when not defining concepts is “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg.
Great Stories
Firstly, let me say that I enjoyed the book. The author packed it with fascinating stories. The book is well written. The discussion of Target’s predictive analytics is especially impressive. My problem is that Duhigg’s thesis is less than the sum of its parts. This is because he is unclear what he means by habit. Habits are indeed powerful. The challenge is that everything in the world seems to be a habit to Duhigg. If your definition of habit is very wide then it’d be surprising if habits weren’t powerful.
Defining Concepts
Duhigg seems to equate habit with lack of deliberation. The problem is that in the prologue he says he uses “the technical definition” of habit. To him this is “…the choices that all of us deliberately make at some point, and then stop thinking about but continue doing, often every day.” (Duhigg, 2012, xvii).
He proceeds to play fast and loose with this definition. He discusses instincts. This is doing something automatically but which you may never have done before. For example, violence in certain situations. Instincts seem to be called habits. Yet, instincts do not fit his definition, Indeed, they don’t fit the lay definition of habit. He discusses gambling addiction which seems like a habit but doesn’t fit this definition well either. Don’t at least some addicts think a lot about their addictions? Friendship, or maybe peer pressure, is given as an example of a habit. This seems a stretch, you may never consciously choose to follow your friends’ leads even if you end up doing. Finally, the whole Target predictive analytics section is cool but a reach to tie to habits.
Habit As A Linking Concept
My guess is that Duhigg had a bunch of fascinating stories and looked for a way to tie them together. Sadly he only got so far with “habit”. It is not clear to me that peer pressure, violence and brand loyalty work similarly. Duhigg argues that we should treat certain habits differently. This is because “free-will” varies between different habits. I agree. Still, I would argue that the reason why the “habits” he discusses should be treated differently is that their underlying substance is different. Indeed many aren’t habits using Duhigg’s definition.
I like when academic research is popularized. I really admire how Duhigg makes it interesting but hopefully readers but will think more deeply about what habits are.
For more on consumer behavior see here, here, and here.
Read: Charles Duhigg (2012) The Power of habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Doubleday Canada