Purchase and consumption habits: Not necessarily what you intend
Mindy Ji and Wendy Wood tested whether habit or stated intention better predicts everyday purchase and consumption. Their abstract proposes that repeated purchases made in familiar places become habits, that environmental cues can then trigger them without conscious decision, and that intentions guide behaviour mainly when habits are weak. In a longitudinal design, one study followed 117 introductory psychology students on buying fast food and watching television news, and a second followed 116 marketing students on those two behaviours and riding the bus. For fast food, intentions predicted behaviour at weak and moderate habit strength but not at strong habit strength. Bus riding showed the same pattern on one habit measure. Television news viewing was predicted by intentions at every level of habit, with a weaker link at strong habit. Physical location was the cue that supported habitual performance across all three behaviours. The authors tested and ruled out several artefactual explanations.
Mindy Ji and Wendy Wood tested whether habit or stated intention better predicts everyday purchase and consumption. Their abstract proposes that repeated purchases made in familiar places become habits, that environmental cues can then trigger them without conscious decision, and that intentions guide behaviour mainly when habits are weak. In a longitudinal design, one study followed 117 introductory psychology students on buying fast food and watching television news, and a second followed 116 marketing students on those two behaviours and riding the bus. For fast food, intentions predicted behaviour at weak and moderate habit strength but not at strong habit strength. Bus riding showed the same pattern on one habit measure. Television news viewing was predicted by intentions at every level of habit, with a weaker link at strong habit. Physical location was the cue that supported habitual performance across all three behaviours. The authors tested and ruled out several artefactual explanations.
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Ji, M. F., & Wood, W. (2007). Purchase and consumption habits: Not necessarily what you intend. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17(4), 261-276. doi:10.1016/S1057-7408(07)70037-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-7408(07)70037-2