In a different experiment, researchers led by Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California, found that under various types of stress, all kinds of habits become stronger - not just the people who caused the problem.
"When you lower the willingness and motivation you have less energy, you may fall back into old, bad habits of eating too much and do not exercise - but only if they are, in fact, your habits," said Wood. "Our novel finding is that people fall back into good habits in just the same way." The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Stress depletes the will, indeed, the brain is wired so that extreme stress is actually closed higher regions involved in long-term planning and thoughtful consideration. That's because these functions are redundant when lives are at stake. When threatened, the brain relies on fast, more primitive regions whose behavior is largely automated in such circumstances. Automatic built-in does not mean, however: much of our behavior automatically, such as riding a bike or eating french fries when feeling anxious, become automatic through repetition.
"People can not make decisions easily when stressed, low willingness or feel overwhelmed," said Wood. "This pressure limit our ability to make decisions." Default in those cases is to engage in habitual behavior, so, he said, "When you are too tired to make a decision, you tend to just repeat what you normally do." And no matter what the habit.
New research involving various kinds of habits and stress. In one experiment, 65 UCLA students followed for 10 weeks and asked about breakfast and the news-reading habits. During the first few weeks, they recorded how often they eat the food they are considered healthy, such as cold cereal, hot cereal and health bars. They also reported intake of what they labeled as healthy breakfast options, including pastries, pancakes and french toast. In addition, they detail whether they regularly read the news section of education such as local and national news, or lighter fare such as advice columns and comics.
The scientists collect data for a few weeks, students measure how strong breakfast and news habits are times when they do not face the stress of exams such as midterms and finals. Then, they compare it with the options that are made during the test period.
And indeed, those who have a strong habit - either healthy or unhealthy - engage in these behaviors more when they feel stressed by exam period. Whether it is eating french bread or regular health bar or read the news that they feel is important or a guilty pleasure, habitual behavior increases under pressure.
The second experiment involved 72 college students at Duke University. This time, they were asked to set a goal they hope to achieve, such as increasing the value or fitness. They also detailed the specific behavior they engage in on a regular basis to achieve their goals, as well as behavior that might get in the way.
For two of the four days of the study, they were randomly assigned to try to do as much of their daily behavior as reasonably possible using their non dominant hand. This task tends to deplete self-control because it requires a strong inhibiting habits. Once again, this experience increased stress habitual behavior - whether it's working towards or against the goals of students.
Another experiment, this one including 164 UCLA students tracked their learning ability, found that those with the lowest levels of self-control are the most likely to have a strong habit, but it is not clear whether the lack of self-control has caused people to get involved the more habitual behavior in the first place or whether to rely more on self-control behavior diminish.
"Our data suggest that stress and low willingness improved performance good and bad habits," said Wood.
"And this was after all kinds of activities that deplete willpower - taking exams, completing mental tasks are difficult, try to perform daily activities in an unusual way. Even people with chronic low levels of willpower and self-control rely more on habit. "
So why does it seem that only the bad habits arise when we face stress arena? Wood said it's a matter of attention. "We do not see so much as we fall back into good habits - these are the people who work for us to meet our goal, and so they are not problematic. It's a bad habit we focus on, so people are more aware of falling back into bad habits when they are low willpower. "Bad habits more prominent, in other words, because they tend to derail us from achieving our goals.
The findings may be useful to reinforce good habits that we cultivate to help our health. But it requires taking the time to establish healthy behaviors before the strike challenging situations. If you want the default to exercise when you're stressed - rather than grabbing a donut - you have to hit the gym again and again.
"Getting enough exercise, eating right, getting enough sleep, do not smoke - all of these must be a blind, automatic part of your day," said Wood. "If they are, then you will continue to do them even when your willpower is low and you can not muster the energy to 'do the right thing' for your health." The fact that habits are hard to break can work for you or against you.
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