Not wanting it does not stop a habit

The idea is that you do what you want. So if you keep doing something, part of you must want it.

That belief can make a repeat feel like a secret wish. The study below points somewhere else: the setting.

Two field studies watched people eat popcorn. Some had a strong habit of eating popcorn at the cinema, and some did not. Some popcorn was fresh and some was stale.

The studies also changed where people ate, and which hand they ate with.

People with a strong habit were barely swayed by hunger or by liking the food. They ate as much stale popcorn as fresh.

But this only held in the cinema, the setting tied to the habit. It also only held when they ate with their usual hand. People with weaker habits ate because they liked the popcorn.

This was popcorn, a small everyday habit, not a pattern with people. The abstract does not give the number of people in each study.

The studies did not test The Archivist Method.

Not wanting the old response is not enough to stop it, because the setting starts it. Changing the usual way of doing it broke the pull in this study. So catch the moment, then do it differently.

Behavioral Interception is the practice of catching an automatic pattern as it begins, intercepting its usual response, and practicing a different action until it becomes more natural.

Start with the body signal, the first physical sign in your chest, throat or jaw. Feel it and name the pattern. Then change one thing about what your hands do next.