Habit formation in context: Context-specific and context-free measures for tracking fruit consumption habit formation and behaviour.

OBJECTIVES: Interventions promoting habitual fruit consumption have the potential to bring about long-term behaviour change. Assessing the effectiveness of such interventions requires adequate habit and behaviour measures. Habits are based on learned context-behaviour associations, so measures that incorporate context should be more sensitive to expected habit and behaviour changes than context-free measures. This study compared context-specific and context-free measures of fruit consumption habit and behaviour following a 3-week habit formation intervention. DESIGN: Prospective online study (n = 58). METHODS: Behaviour frequency was assessed across five timepoints, retrospectively (Time 1 [T1], T5) or via daily diary data (uploaded weekly at T2, T3 and T4). Habit strength was assessed before (T1) and immediately after the intervention (T4), and again 2 weeks later (T5). Analyses of variance were run, with time and context specificity as within-subject factors, and habit and behaviour frequency as dependent measures. RESULTS: An interaction between time and context specificity was found in both analyses (habit: F(2,114) = 12.848, p < .001, part.η2  = .184; behaviour: F(2,114) = 6.714, p = .002, part.η2  = .105). Expected habit formation patterns 5 weeks post-baseline were only detected by the context-specific habit measure. Likewise, increased behaviour frequency was only found when the target context was specified (p's < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Assessments of purposeful dietary habit and behaviour change attempts should incorporate context-specific measurement.

Changes in virus-transmission habits during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-national, repeated measures study.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic saw promotion of novel virus transmission-reduction behaviours, and discouragement of familiar transmission-conducive behaviours. Understanding changes in the automatic nature of such behaviours is important, because habitual behaviours may be more easily reactivated in future outbreaks and disrupting old habits may discontinue unwanted behaviours. DESIGN: A repeated-measures, multi-national design tracked virus-transmission habits and behaviour fortnightly over six months (Apr-Sept 2020) among 517 participants (age M = 42 ± 16y, 79% female). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Within-participant habit trajectories across all timepoints, and engagement in transmission-reduction behaviours (handwashing when entering home; handwashing with soap for 20 seconds; physical distancing) and transmission-conducive behaviours (coughing/sneezing into hands; making physical contact) summed over the final two timepoints. RESULTS: Three habit trajectory types were observed. Habits that remained strong ('stable strong habit') and habits that strengthened ('habit formation') were most common for transmission-reduction behaviours. Erosion of initially strong habits ('habit degradation') was most common for transmission-conducive behaviours. Regression analyses showed 'habit formation' and 'stable strong habit' trajectories were associated with greater behavioural engagement at later timepoints. CONCLUSION: Participants typically maintained or formed transmission-reduction habits, which encouraged later performance, and degraded transmission-conducive habits, which decreased performance. Findings suggest COVID-19-preventive habits may be recoverable in future virus outbreaks.

The impact of activating an empathic focus during COVID19 on healthcare workers motivation for hand hygiene compliance in moments serving the protection of others: a randomized controlled trial study.

Aim: The "Five moments of hand hygiene" (World Health Organization 2009) can be classified into moments of hand hygiene before and after patient care. Based on research indicating that hand hygiene compliance differs with regard to moments before and after patient care, this research evaluates the effectiveness of an empathy-based intervention in motivating hand hygiene compliance with regard to moments before patient care which protect vulnerable individuals from contamination and infection. Subjects and method: An online experiment involving 68 healthcare professionals working at a German hospital during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic investigates whether instructing healthcare professionals to consider consequences for others (vs for themselves) if they contracted SARS-CoV-2 promotes hand hygiene compliance referring to moments before (vs after) patient care. Results: In the condition in which healthcare professionals considered consequences for others if they contracted SARS-CoV-2 (other-focus condition), ratings of importance increased (M = 3.49, SD = 1.30) compared to the condition in which healthcare professionals considered consequences for themselves (M = 2.68, SD = 1.24), F(1,66) = 6.87, p = .011, partη2 = .09. Participants in the other-focus condition reported more intentions to comply with "before moments" in the future (M = 3.34, SD = 1.14) compared to participants in the self-focus condition (M = 2.77, SD = 0.80), F(1,66) = 6.15, p = .016, partη2 = .09. Conclusion: Results indicate that activating an empathic focus in the context of the current pandemic promotes perceived importance and motivation of healthcare professionals to comply with moments aiming at protecting vulnerable others. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-022-01725-z.