Exercise habit development: The role of context stability and identity

Exercise prevents chronic illness and supports disease management. However, few adults maintain a regular exercise regimen. Research is only beginning to identify behavioral maintenance mechanisms, such as habits and barrier self-efficacy. Although some habits may be maintained through pure non-conscious or automatic action, other more complex habits, such as exercising, may require additional maintenance mechanisms. We test whether contextual stability, which should promote habit formation, and behavior-specific identity function as necessary conditions for exercise habit formation.
Data are drawn from two samples: an observational study conducted in undergraduates (N = 494; Mage =19.31, SDage = 1.77; 54.7% Female), and an intervention that tested strategies for forming a brisk-walking habit in sedentary young women (N = 175; Mage =19.14, SDage = 1.58). Participants’ context stability (daily and weekly) was measured at baseline. Exercise identity and habit strength were measured at baseline in the observational study and at one-month post intervention in the experiment. In both samples, we tested the hypothesis that contextual stability and identity would be necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions for habit formation. For the experiment, this hypothesis was tested across conditions.
The hypotheses were tested using a novel methodology called Necessary Condition Analysis. Participants were removed from analyses if they failed any random response check. Neither daily nor weekly context stability were necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions for habit development (ps > .05). That is, individuals reported having exercise habits, even when their contexts were less stable from day-to-day or week-to-week. Results indicated that identity is a necessary-but-not-sufficient condition for habit development (observational: d = .26, p = <.001; experimental = d = .03, p = .014). Thus, individuals with weak exercise identities did not report strong exercise habits.
General context stability may be less important for habit development than forming an identity. This does not mean cues are not important for exercise habit—rather, it may be that it is possible to have stable behavior-specific cues/contexts even when one’s general context stability is low. Taken together, these results highlight how targeting identity formation may be necessary for forming exercise or other complex habits.