Crawford Hollingworth: Cue action!

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As researchers, we often explore the context around the product, service or consumers we are researching. New research on understanding the science behind habits and routines has given us another concrete reason to explore context – how analysing the types of cues prompting a routine behaviour can indicate how strong and well-embedded a routine might be.

Significantly, not all cues are equal. There is a plethora of behaviour-change interventions in trying to build a new habit, many of which have limited success, especially long term. Having a clearer understanding of which cues are likely to be effective could inform interventions to help people select the cues that best fit their context and, so, ensure a strong habit is built.

We already know that establishing cues – background reminders in your surroundings that automatically make you think ‘aah, I need to do x or y’ – can be an effective way to prompt and build a new habit or routine.

When ...