How Do Our Brains Make – And Break – Habits?

You know IFLScience – there’s no question too big or too bizarre. We wanted to know what goes on inside our brains when we form a habit; why some habits are tough to break; and why some behaviors never seem to become habits at all. So, we enlisted the help of a clinical psychologist and a neuroscientist to help us get to the bottom of this brainteaser (sorry not sorry) from different angles. 

We’re not born with habits

Let’s start at the beginning. Humans come out of the womb totally habit-free. But, as chartered clinical psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society Dr Linda Blair told us, it’s surprising how early in life habits can actually start to form.

“What happens is when you’re a baby – and it happens that early – you do something and something good happens, so you do it again, and you may well do it in response to something you see. So, you know, the most extraordinary habits can be formed.” 

Doesn’t matter if you’ve been in slippers for 40 years – now you’re in gym kit because that’s what’s there.

Dr Linda Blair

The “something good” in this context, according to Blair, might be as simple as the baby’s mother appearing when it performs a certain action. This is interpreted as a reward by the brain. “And so, we do it again and again and again. Because […] the more often you do it, the more certain you are you’ll get the reward if you do that.”

Reward is absolutely central to habit formation, as neuroscientist Dr Aleksandra Herman told IFLScience. Herman is an assistant professor and MSCA Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Brain Imaging, based at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Poland. 

“Two main brain systems are involved in habit formation. Both rely on the interaction between the cortex (the brain’s outer layer) and the striatum (a deep brain structure involved in movement and reward processing).”

“The first one is the goal-directed system, which is responsible for intentional actions – when we consciously decide to do something, like starting a new exercise routine. It requires effort and involves the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, which help with decision-making, emotional regulation, and self-control. It also engages the dorsomedial striatum, which is involved in motor function and processing rewards,” Herman explained. 

“The other is the habit system, which takes over when behaviours become automatic, like brushing your teeth or driving a familiar route without thinking. It involves the sensorimotor cortex, which integrates sensory and movement information, and the dorsolateral striatum, which is critical for learning habits and skills.”

Gradually, as actions are repeated, control over them shifts from the first system to the second.

There’s one brain chemical that plays a particularly key role in this process, and that’s dopamine. It’s often referred to as the “pleasure chemical”, but that doesn’t really do justice to all its vital functions. However, it is true that it’s a major part of the brain’s reward system. 

It’s also important when it comes to compulsive behaviors that tip over into full-blown addictions. 

“Drugs directly affect dopamine, reinforcing behaviour and making it more likely to be repeated. Addiction is linked to dysregulation of dopamine signalling, making certain individuals more prone to compulsive drug use,” Herman told IFLScience. “Genetic, psychological, and social factors are also crucial and can influence how rewarding a drug feels and how likely someone is to lose control over its use.”

As to why some individuals are more susceptible to developing genuinely damaging habits or addictions, Herman said, “This is a complex question with no single answer. Many people drink alcohol, but only a small percentage develop an addiction. Why? One explanation is differences in brain systems. Some individuals may over-rely on habit-based behaviours and struggle with goal-directed regulation. Others may have heightened sensitivity to rewards, making them more vulnerable to developing compulsive behaviours.” 

“People who have a compulsion or addiction, they can’t stop until they get the reward,” added Blair. “Then it’s more like relief than it is pleasure. In both cases it’s dopamine, but it feels different. It’s very subtle.”

Given her clinical work with patients experiencing compulsive behaviors – as a consequence of obsessive-compulsive disorder, for instance – we asked Blair if there’s ever a situation where it’s preferable to allow these behaviors to continue. 

“That’s an excellent question that can only be answered by the individual,” she explained.

“If the person tells me, ‘look, this isn’t interfering with my ADL [activities of daily living], I’m able to do the things I want to do, I see the friends I want to see, I don’t feel it’s holding me back,’ […] that’s not for me to treat. That’s fine, but it’s a deeply ingrained habit.”

It was at this point we realized that this topic was shaping up to be a lot more complex than we’d first thought!

How habits have helped us

When we think of a “habit”, our minds might go straight to things like addiction and the more extreme examples, and we may not consider the everyday habitual, automatic behaviors – the stuff you just “know how to do” without consciously thinking about it. Once upon a time, you did have to learn that skill. With repetition, your habit system was able to take over. 

This, of course, also means that many habits are useful, even essential. We tend to get distracted by the idea of bad habits, focusing less on the more constructive idea of building and holding onto our good habits. 

“Habits are great because they save time,” Blair pointed out. “If every single time we wanted a cup of coffee we had to stop and think, […] we’d never get anything done. So, they’re great. They’re there for a purpose.”

Without opening up terrifying questions about the nature of free will, the ability to give much of our day-to-day behavior over to automatic control has been helpful to us as a species. The American Psychological Association cites research by University of Southern California researcher Dr Wendy Wood, who estimates that 43 percent of daily actions are habitual, carried out while our minds are elsewhere. That’s a whole lot of extra thinking time we’re gaining. 

“It’s in your own gift to change any habit”

But sometimes you have to admit you have habits that aren’t serving you, and you do want to break them. 

Since forming new habits takes time and repetition, consistency is key. Making small, intentional changes to your environment can greatly improve your chances of success.

Dr Aleksandra Herman

In order to do that – and leaving aside now the question of addiction, which may well require more in-depth treatment and therapy – Herman told us that we essentially have to kick things into reverse, neurologically speaking: “To successfully break a habit, we need to engage the goal-directed system more effectively.”

The good news is that that’s totally possible. Yay! The bad news, as anyone who has ever tried to implement a new daily workout regime in January will tell you, is that it’s hard. 

“It’s in your own gift to change any habit,” says Blair, “but you need to prioritize it about the demands around you, because otherwise you’ll just do the habit.”

“You have to appreciate the value of habits, but you have to decide if they really are serving you. That has to be a sort of conscious process. [It] pays to evaluate these things.”

It could be that you have a habit that was once useful, but isn’t doing it for you anymore, as Blair explained. “Maybe how I get to work used to be really great. It was automatic. I didn’t really think about it. But now, there are so many traffic jams, I need to not go that same path. I need to forge a new path.”

Forcing yourself to change up a longstanding habit like this requires some effort. One way to help yourself is to give yourself a reminder, a cue that disrupts your habitual action. “For example, let’s take the going to work,” Blair continued. “You’ll just get in your car and go on your same route, if you’re like me. So, what you do is you put your car keys in the normal place, but you put a map with a new route underneath the car keys. New cue: ‘ah yes, I have to go a different way.’”

Herman had similar advice, suggesting strategies like removing temptations from your environment, making it as easy as possible to engage in a new behavior, and also making it harder to fall back on your old ways. For example, if you want to get into the habit of going on a run each morning, getting your workout clothes out the night before and leaving your running shoes near the door could help. Equally, if you want to stop doomscrolling every night before bed, give yourself the best chance by leaving your phone in another room altogether. 

“Since forming new habits takes time and repetition, consistency is key. Making small, intentional changes to your environment can greatly improve your chances of success,” said Herman. 

Above all, Blair says, “don’t get discouraged.” Even if you’ve been wanting to change your habits for years, it’s never too late. 

“Instead of your bedroom slippers when you wake up in the morning being the first thing you see, what you see now is your gym kit on the floor. Yes, it’s all you need. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been in slippers for 40 years – now you’re in gym kit because that’s what’s there.”