How The Power of Habit Uses Science and Narratives to Support Arguments

Emily Chen

      

Lately, I’ve been listening to self-improvement audiobooks to help me stay motivated, since it has been harder to find inspiration. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about Girl, Wash Your Face, which encouraged me to continue working towards my goals. Recently, I finished The Power of Habit, which I had heard great things about. In it, Charles Duhigg discusses the science behind the formation and function of habits, then explains how we can use that understanding to modify them. It also describes how they influence our lives and the world around us. The book is divided into three parts: "The Habits of Individuals," "The Habits of Successful Organizations," and "The Habits of Societies." I found it to be an enlightening call-to-action that helps readers understand the world around us.

Duhigg introduces each of his arguments with a story, which makes his book an engaging read. Instead of simply stating facts, The Power of Habit exemplifies each one with a relevant narrative focused on a particular individual or event. While I found these stories to be quite interesting, I think they are used excessively. When explaining how habits function in chapter one, more time is spent talking about a man with memory loss than connecting that narrative to the main ideas. “He was elderly, a shade over six feet tall, and neatly dressed in a blue button-down shirt. His think white hair would have inspired envy at any fiftieth high school reunion. Arthritis caused him to limp slightly as the paced the laboratory’s hallways. And he held his wife’s hand, walking….” The story was interesting and later highlighted the author’s point, but I think the chapter could have been much more concise. Instead of providing overly detailed backstories, more emphasis could be placed on the ideas that they connect to. 

In addition to telling narratives, The Power of Habit guides readers towards the main ideas by describing studies. These make Duhigg’s arguments more compelling by grounding the ideas in fact and research. When pointing out that habits hold a dangerous amount of power, he writes:

“In one set of experiments, researchers … trained mice to press levers in response to certain cues until the behavior became a habit. The mice were always rewarded with food. Then, the scientists poisoned the food so that it made the animals violently ill…. The mice knew that the food and cage were dangerous, however, they unthinkingly pressed the lever and ate the food, even as they vomited…. The habit was so ingrained the mice couldn’t stop themselves.”

While disturbing, this is a fascinating study that clearly gets the point across; habits hold immense power over us and can induce us to take harmful actions. This helped showcase why people feel compelled to do things that bring about harm to themselves, such as smoking or using drugs. Duhigg maintains this throughout the whole book, always convincing readers to grasp his arguments by supporting them with science.

          

           Though The Power of Habit is somewhat long and provides unnecessary backstory, it makes compelling, eye-opening conclusions supported by science and narratives. It does an excellent job of explaining how habits work, how they are formed, and how they can be changed in our favor. The book also connects individuals’ habits with those of companies and society as a whole, providing insights into how they function. Overall, I found The Power of Habit to be an interesting read that provides many insights that could potentially help you change your habits, and along with them, your life.