The Habit Lab, founded by Sanne de Wit at the University of Amsterdam, investigates how habits shape behaviour in everyday life and how they can be leveraged to promote meaningful, lasting change. Our work focuses on applying insights from psychological and neuroscientific research to real-world challenges – particularly in (physical and mental) health, wellbeing and sustainability.

What we do

Habits play a central role in much of what we do (e.g., diet, physical activity, medication adherence, oral hygiene routines, smartphone use, pro-environmental behaviours). We study how habits are formed, maintained, and changed, and how this knowledge can be used to design effective behaviour change interventions.
By combining fundamental, experimental research with applied approaches, we aim to bridge the gap between theory and practice and contribute to improving individual and societal outcomes.

Applications of habit science

Health & Wellbeing
A major focus of our research is on health-related behaviours. We investigate how habits contribute to patterns such as medication adherence, physical activity, dietary choices, and oral hygiene routines. Furthermore, we study how habits can support personal goal pursuit in older adults and improve their resilience. Finally, we investigate the role of habits in addictive or compulsive behaviours. Our goal is to develop evidence-based, habit-focused interventions that help people translate intentions into sustained behaviour change and support both physical and mental health.

Smartphone and social media habits
Digital environments are designed to capture attention and evoke habitual patterns of use. In ongoing research, we examine how habits shape interactions with technologies such as social media, and how these patterns can be modified to support better self-control and wellbeing.

Sustainability & Everyday Habits
Many of today’s sustainability challenges are rooted in everyday habits. As part of the CAREFREE team (led by Nicole Bouvy), we work together to determine how everyday behaviours within Dutch healthcare settings (e.g., glove use) can be shifted toward more sustainable alternatives.

Mechanisms of habit and behaviour change

Our research is grounded in the study of the psychological and neural processes that drive behavior. To this end, we combine:
• Real-life habit tracking and diary studies
• Experimental research
• Neuroimaging methods

Across both general and clinical, older and younger populations, we investigate:
• Determinants of the balance between habitual and goal-directed control
• How learned (Pavlovian and instrumental) associations influence behavior independent of current goals
•The role of environmental cues (e.g., the obesogenic environment)

For specific questions about our research, please email: s.dewit@uva.nl