Module 4 · Change & break habits · Research-supported

Make it harder to do

Add steps, distance and delay between you and the habit.

5 min read · Level: Beginner · Free — no account needed to read

The problem it solves

How can a few extra steps protect you from a habit?

The concept

Adding friction means putting effort between you and an unwanted habit: logging out of an app, storing snacks on a high shelf, keeping the credit card in a drawer, leaving the TV remote in another room.

Friction works because habits run on ease. A small pause gives your considered self a chance to catch up with the automatic one. It doesn’t forbid the habit; it just stops it from happening on autopilot.

Even a few seconds can matter, but the right amount is enough to interrupt the automatic start without making you resent it.

Why it matters

Changing how easy an option is — its placement, availability and effort — is one of the most studied forms of choice architecture, though the size of its effects varies a lot between situations.

Research-supported: Good studies support it, but there are fewer of them, the effects are modest, or they come from a narrow set of situations.

See it happen

Victor opens a game on his phone dozens of times a day without thinking.

The ordinary first approach

He should delete the game entirely, even though he enjoys it sometimes.

With the idea

He moves the app into a folder on the last screen and signs out after each use.

What changed

He can still play when he chooses; he just no longer plays by reflex.

Easy to get wrong

• Adding friction you’ll immediately undo because it’s annoying.
• Only adding friction and never offering an alternative.
• Assuming more friction is always better — just enough to interrupt autopilot.

Try it now: Add one speed bump

1. Pick an unwanted habit.
2. List three ways to make it take a little more effort.
3. Try the one you’re least likely to undo.

Apply it to one of your habits

For one habit you want to change, what step will you add in front of it?

Reflect

• Did the extra step change how often the habit happened?

Go deeper — evidence & sources

• Hollands, Shemilt, Marteau, Jebb, Kelly, Nakamura and colleagues (2013). Altering micro-environments to change population health behaviour: towards an evidence base for choice architecture interventions. BMC Public Health. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-1218
• Mertens, Herberz, Hahnel & Brosch (2022). The effectiveness of nudging: A meta-analysis of choice architecture interventions across behavioral domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.2107346118
• Duckworth, Gendler & Gross (2016). Situational Strategies for Self-Control. Perspectives on Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/1745691615623247