Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, L13, 17, 68161, Mannheim, Germany.
Department of Child Nutrition, Max Rubner-Institut, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Haid-und-Neu-Straße 9, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2022 Aug 12;19(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s12966-022-01343-8.
Habits drive many of our health behaviors in our daily lives. However, little is known about the relative contribution of different key factors for habit formation in real-world contexts. We examined the effects of behavioral performance, intrinsic reward value (operationalized as tastiness), and context stability on the formation of a higher-order nutrition habit.
Participants were recruited via mailing lists and posts on social media platforms. N = 199 participants (M = 37.10 years, SD = 13.00, 86.93% female) received an online intervention for building the higher-order habit of filling half of their plates with vegetables at dinner and completed one daily online survey for up to 56 days, including the assessment of habit strength, behavioral performance, intrinsic reward value, and context stability, providing a total of N = 6352 daily measurements. N = 189 participants (N = 4175 measurements) could be included in the primary analysis. Utilizing multilevel modeling, we analyzed the impact of behavioral performance, intrinsic reward value, and context stability, as well as their interaction effects, on habit strength on the next day.
Habit strength significantly increased over time. This effect was strengthened in persons with high mean levels of behavioral performance. Furthermore, mean levels of behavioral performance, intrinsic reward value, and context stability were all positively related to mean levels of habit strength. There were no positive effects of daily intraindividual variations in the three examined factors on habit strength at the next day. There was an unexpected negative effect of daily behavioral performance on habit strength at the next day. We found little to no evidence for our expected and pre-registered interaction effects. In an additional exploratory analysis, there were positive effects of daily intraindividual variations in the three factors on habit strength at the same day.
We found that behavioral performance, intrinsic reward value, and context stability were all independent predictors of habit strength of a higher-order habit at the between-person level. However, we did not find the expected associations at the within-person level. Habit interventions should promote the consistent performance of the target behaviors in stable contexts.
https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=vu2cg4 . Registered 28.04.2020.
习惯在我们的日常生活中驱动着许多健康行为。然而，在真实环境中，对于习惯形成的不同关键因素的相对贡献，我们知之甚少。我们研究了行为表现、内在奖励价值（操作性定义为美味）和环境稳定性对更高阶营养习惯形成的影响。
通过邮件列表和社交媒体平台上的帖子招募参与者。共有 199 名参与者（M=37.10 岁，SD=13.00，86.93%为女性）参与了一项在线干预，以养成晚餐时将盘子的一半装满蔬菜的更高阶习惯，并在最多 56 天内每天完成一次在线调查，包括习惯强度、行为表现、内在奖励价值和环境稳定性的评估，共提供了 N=6352 项日常测量结果。共有 189 名参与者（N=4175 项测量结果）可纳入主要分析。利用多层线性模型，我们分析了行为表现、内在奖励价值和环境稳定性及其交互效应对次日习惯强度的影响。
习惯强度随时间显著增加。这种效果在行为表现均值较高的人群中得到了加强。此外，行为表现、内在奖励价值和环境稳定性的均值均与习惯强度的均值呈正相关。在三个被检查因素的每日个体内变化上，没有对次日习惯强度产生积极影响。令人意外的是，每日行为表现与次日习惯强度呈负相关。我们几乎没有发现预期的和预先注册的交互效应的证据。在一项额外的探索性分析中，三个因素的每日个体内变化对同日的习惯强度有积极影响。
我们发现，在个体间水平上，行为表现、内在奖励价值和环境稳定性都是高阶习惯强度的独立预测因素。然而，我们在个体内水平上没有发现预期的关联。习惯干预措施应促进目标行为在稳定环境中的持续表现。
https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=vu2cg4。注册于 2020 年 4 月 28 日。
