How VR Is Changing the Way We Study Habits

Key points

Sixty-five percent of daily behaviours occur automatically. These are habits.

Lab studies offer control but lack realism. Real-world studies are realistic but hard to control.

Could VR offer a new tool for studying habits? Virtual reality combines realism with control.

By Phillippa Lally and Annabel Rivers-Stone.

A recent study suggests that 65 percent of our daily behaviours are done on “autopilot,” meaning that we do them without thinking. These automatic behaviours occur because they are the result of a habitual process.

Habitual behaviours are formed through repetition. They can be helpful, like washing our hands, or unhelpful, like biting our nails. Since so many of our day-to-day actions are habitual, understanding how habits form and how we can change them is es