Break bad habits by forming good new ones

David Robson, features editor

WHO can deny ownership of a single bad habit that they have tried, and failed, to kick?

Neuroscientists have long understood our inability to resist temptation. Brain scans tell us that habits usually start with a simple sensory cue - the smell of a cigarette, for instance - which sets up a craving in the brain's reward centres. This yearning overrides the regions involved in self-control, so that nothing will satisfy you except the momentary pleasure of a fix.

The million-dollar question is whether you can to break this cycle to forge newer, healthier habits in the messy conditions of real life. It is here that Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit excels. From nail-biting to alcoholism, Duhigg offers astute insights into the triggers that set people on a downward spiral, and proven ways to fight those urges.

He has set his sights far beyond the individual, however. Habitual behaviours can propagate through an organisation or society, he argues, offering convincing anecdotes that cover everything from the success of Starbucks to the civil rights movement. Most compelling, though, is his explanation of the way advertising hijacks your brain's reward centres to set off a new, irresistible habit.

Whether Duhigg's book will lead you to change your behaviours is another matter: no amount of understanding is going to make up for willpower. But his lucid writing is sure to persuade you to give it a try.

Book Information
The Power of Habit
by Charles Duhigg
Published by: William Heinemann /Random House
?12.99/$28

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