How long does it take to form a habit? A multi-center replication

Peer Community in Registered Reports

registered report
preregistration
Authors
Affiliations

Sanne de Wit

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Maik Bieleke

Sport Psychology Lab, Department of Sport Science, University of Konstanz, Germany

Paul Fletcher

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust, United Kingdom
Wellcome Trust MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, United Kingdom

Annette Horstmann

Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland

Julia Schüler

Sport Psychology Lab, Department of of Sport Science, University of Konstanz, Germany

Lotte P. Brinkhof

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lukas J. Gunschera

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Jaap M. J. Murre

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Published

2023

Abstract

How long does it take to form a habit? This question will be addressed by an innovative study by Lally et al. (2010), in which they tracked the subjective automaticity of a novel, daily (eating or exercise-related) routine, using the Self-Report Habit Index. They showed that the gradual automatization of a novel routine is best described by an asymptotic curve, and that it takes (a median of) 66 days to reach the asymptotic ‘habit plateau’, with a range of 18 to 254 days (based on statistical extrapolation). However, these findings were based on a small sample of 39 participants, and this influential study has not been replicated yet. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to conduct a near-exact, multi-centre replication at four different locations. We aim to recruit 800 participants to increase reliability.

OSF

Preregistration

Registered Report