Good Habits, Bad Habits

‘Wendy Wood is the world’s foremost expert in the field, and this book is essential’ – Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit.

What if you could harness the extraordinary power of your unconscious mind, which already determines so much of what you do, to achieve your goals?

Shockingly, we spend nearly half our day repeating things we've done in the past without thinking about them. How we respond to the people around us; the way we conduct ourselves in meetings; what we buy; when and how we exercise, eat and drink – a truly remarkable number of things we do every day, we do by habit.

And yet, whenever we want to change something about ourselves, we rely on willpower alone. We hope that our determination and intention will be enough to effect positive change. And that is why almost all of us fail.

Professor Wendy Wood is the world's foremost expert on habits. By drawing on three decades of original research, she explains the fascinating science of how we form habits and provides the key to unlocking our habitual mind in order to make the changes we seek.

Combining a potent mix of neuroscience, case studies and experiments conducted in her lab, Good Habits, Bad Habits is a comprehensive, accessible and highly practical book that will change the way you think about almost every aspect of your life.

“If you've ever struggled to make or break a habit, this is the book you need to read. Wendy Wood is widely recognized as the authority on the science of habits, and her lively writing busts myths and builds evidence about what actually helps with making behavior changes that last.”

If you’ve ever struggled to make or break a habit, this is the book you need to read. Wendy Wood is widely recognized as the authority on the science of habits -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take, and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
Wendy Wood is the world’s foremost expert in the field, and this book is essential -- Angela Duckworth, author of Grit
Enlightening and insightful . . . Wood’s research and perspective on the malleability of habits will bring hope to any reader looking to create long-term behavioural change Publishers Weekly
Wendy Wood . . . is the most thoughtful, innovative person who understands the role of habits in human behaviour . . . I can’t imagine a better person writing this book -- Dan Ariely
There is no one in all of psychology who could write a more compelling book on habits and behaviours -- James W. Pennebaker
No one has studied how habits form and direct behaviour better than Professor Wendy Wood . . . She has described how to change negative habits into positive versions better than anybody. She's the researcher best able to write the next big book on the topic -- Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
Fascinating and fun, this book will change a lot of lives . . . Wood brings state-of-the-art social science into contact with the most pressing issues in daily life. She’s a tremendous guide -- Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University, and author of How Change Happens
A fascinating tour of the science of habits, and Wendy Wood is the consummate tour guide. One of the world’s leading habit researchers -- Professor Adam Alter, New York Times bestselling author of Drunk Tank Pink and Irresistible
A huge achievement. Wendy Wood manages to distil the science of habit formation, most of which emerges from her own lab, in a manner that is fascinating but also, above all, extremely useful for people looking to make positive change in their life -- David Kessler, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Overeating and Capture
Many authors have written about habits . . . but Wood is also a premier scientist in psychology, working on how habits affect and are affected by the human mind. Top tip: Willpower isn’t enough. But through her original research, Wood explains what does work Washington Post
In Good Habits, Bad Habits . . . the social psychologist Wendy Wood refutes both [William] James’s determinism and glib exhortations to be proactive, and seeks to give the general reader more realistic ideas for how to break habits. Drawing on her work in the field, she sees the task of sustaining positive behaviors and quelling negative ones as involving an interplay of decisions and unconscious factors . . . Even people who score high on self-control questionnaires may owe their apparent virtue to situational factors rather than to sheer fortitude . . . This observation leads to the crux of her book’s thesis: the path to breaking bad habits lies not in resolve but in restructuring our environment in ways that sustain good behaviors. The New Yorker

Wendy Wood was born in the UK and is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California. Her research incorporates neuroscience, cognition and behavioural insights to understand habit persistence and change, and she has collaborated with many luminary psychologists, including Angela Duckworth and Adam Grant. She has written for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Time magazine, USA Today and NPR.

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