My old friend and guru Jack Gallagher used to ask his students to answer the question: “Why do people obey?” One would answer “force” and Jack would point out you’d need a policeman on every street corner. Or they’d say “consent of the people” – plainly not the case in dictatorships.
So what was the right answer? Habit. And now a Duke University study has estimated that 45% of the choices people make every day are based on habit. It seems that neural pathways are literally worn down by constant repetition, making our habits very hard to shake.
All this goes rather against our desire to offer new stimulants to children, to avoid rote learning and for shops to be forever making new foods and clothes to attract customers. Though it may explain the popularity of endless soap dramas or why we stick so often to accustomed order, however boring, whether it’s setting the alarm at the same time even if we’ve nothing that needs doing until lunchtime, or calling old friends by their school nicknames.
It’s depressing to think we do so much just because we’re used to doing it. Maybe we should resolve to do something really different at least one day a week – cook a new recipe, tackle a new author, or walk to the shops a different way.
The only problem is doing that would soon become a habit, too.
What do you think? Have your say below
