A Behavioral Take on Atomic Habits

If you’ve been anywhere in the self-help world in the last few years, you’ve probably heard of the bestselling book by James Clear, Atomic Habits. As most self-help books do, this book has sat on my bookshelf for years. For the last few months, it has sat on the table next to my couch, begging me to finally pick it up and read it. Last week, I finally took the plunge. 

I had heard the book was based in behavior science, but how deep does it go? Are the principles there, or are they wrapped up in such pretty wrapping that the underlying principles are diluted and lost? As a behavior analyst, I was pleasantly surprised by the content of the book. And as someone who is pro-dissemination, I was even more pleased (see last week’s blog for more info on dissemination).

What are Atomic Habits?

The book is made up of the philosophy that small habits make up our lives, the way atoms make up larger structures. James Clear makes the case that we need to focus on the small things to make a difference in the big things. This is very much aligned with behavior analysis and single-case research design. We track small, seemingly insignificant behaviors, knowing that small changes to one’s life will result in big changes overall. We track the steps taken, the bites eaten, and the words written. We know these will tell a more complete story than the pounds lost, the cuisines tried, and the articles published. One might even say that behavior analysts track atomic behaviors.

The 4-Term Contingency 

I think Skinner would roll over in his grave if we didn’t discuss the 4-term contingency. As a reminder, the 3-term contingency is the behavior we are looking at, as well as what happened immediately before and immediately after the behavior. The 4-term contingency also takes into account motivating operations, which is basically one’s desire for a certain consequence. 

Behavior Analytic 4-Term Contingency: SD → MO → Bx → SR

James Clear also talks about a 4-term Contingency. The first step is a cue, which tells you what to do or when to do it. The second step is a craving, which is a desire for a certain reward. Next, the habit occurs, and is followed by a reward.

Atomic Habits 4-Term Contingency: Cue → Craving → Response → Reward

Recently, Shauna talked about the importance of non-academic writing. To me, this is a perfect example of non-academic writing. Sure, the 4-term contingency doesn’t always involve a reward (the consequence can also be punishment), but who understands SD → MO → Bx → SR? And why do they need to understand the scientific terms? Cue → Craving → Response → Reward is a perfect way to explain the 4-term contingency in a way that people will understand. What about the rest of the book?

The 4 Laws of Behavior Change

James Clear has 4 main laws of behavior change. These are to make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. Following these laws is supposed to make behavior change possible. Each law also has an inverse that will make behavior change harder. Let’s go through each law and explore the behavioral principles at play with each.

Make it Obvious

The first law of behavior change is to make it obvious. Make the behavior change clear. In other words, this is where we get the first bit of environmental manipulation. James Clear gives several examples of how we can manipulate the environment to see the behavior change we want. One of these is self-monitoring, which is writing down when certain behaviors occur. Self-monitoring has a lot of research to suggest that it is effective at changing behavior. I have personally used this method to change private events such as negative self-talk with good success (read: I still have negative self-talk, but it’s less frequent than it used to be).

Another way the book suggests making behavior change obvious is through habit stacking. Now, habit stacking is not in any of my textbooks, but that’s only because the technical term for habit stacking is creating a behavior chain. When we create a behavior chain with reinforcement at the end of the chain, behavior will change.

James Clear also talked about one of my favorite topics- behavioral economics. When we change the environment to make certain choices more clear, our behavior changes with it. For example, when a grocery store puts produce at the front of the store, more fruits and vegetables are bought. When we lay out athletic wear at night, we are more likely to go to the gym in the morning. On the other hand, when we hide our halloween candy, we are less likely to binge eat all the candy. Making it obvious will change behavior.

Make it Attractive

This one doesn’t sound behavior analytic off the cuff. However, I think this is also supported by the science of behavior. The most obvious way we can make new habits attractive is to pair nonpreferred tasks with preferred ones. Clear specifically calls out the Premack principle as one way to do this. Another way to make habits attractive is to use accountability partners. This is also a research-backed method for behavior change. Making it attractive is less about making your habit visually attractive and more about how to make it socially acceptable or physically reinforcing to complete the habit. Again, these are behavior analytic strategies and I applaud James Clear for making them so accessible.

Make it Easy

This one may be the most obvious behavior analytic rule. It’s all about response effort. If we want to do something, we should remove as many barriers to completion as possible. Makes sense, right?

The book also talks about shaping successive approximations. I mean, the book frames this as doing something instead of doing it perfectly, but what that translates to is shaping successive approximations of the desired behavior. Another behavior analytic way to change behavior.

Make it Satisfying

When James Clear talks about making a habit satisfying, he is saying that we should make it reinforcing to complete the task. He talks about immediate reinforcement, saying that delayed gratification is not a skill humans have evolved to have. As behavior analysts, we know that verbal behavior can help bridge the gap between a behavior and its reinforcer, but the most powerful reinforcer will still come immediately following a behavior. 

Atomic Habits even talks a little bit about function-based consequences. He told a story that sounded just like the PDC to me. The story discussed that the appropriate response to increasing a desired behavior was to provide consequences rather than education. I don’t think Clear was aiming to make a point about function-based strategies here, but that was my takeaway. In short, to make a behavior satisfying is to use behavior analysis to make the behavior reinforcing.

Advanced Tactics (AKA Where He Lost Me)

Okay, so this is the section where I struggled to find the behavior analytic-ness of it all. Clear talks about the role genetics play in habit formation. Sure, if your goal is to deadlift 200 pounds, your genetics might play a role in this. But if your goal is to floss every day, I don’t see how genetics matter. I always reserve the right to be wrong- a geneticist probably would disagree with me here. And that’s okay, but with my current knowledge, this point loses me a little bit.

Clear also talks about how your personality affects habit formation. Here, I had to do a reframe: I changed “personality” to “learning history.” Then the section made perfect sense. Your learning history will affect what reinforcers work or don’t work to change behavior. Your learning history will impact whether self-monitoring works better or accountability partners work better for you. At the end of the day, it all comes down to learning history. 

Closing Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading Atomic Habits. The book was full of stories and anecdotes that made my heart soar. More than that, I was glad to see that a book so loved by the masses is full of behavioral principles that will actually lead to behavior change. I firmly believe that the important thing is to get the science out there for people to use and love, not to get people to understand our scientific lingo. Congratulations to James Clear for writing such an incredible book.

This post reflects my personal analysis and opinion and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the author or publisher.

Citations: 

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Gravina, N., Sleiman, A., Southwick, F.S., Matey, N., Harlan, E., Lukose, K., Hack, G. and Radhakrishnan, N.S. (2021), Increasing adherence to a standardized rounding procedure in two hospital in-patient units. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 54: 1514-1525. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.865 

Marek, A. J., Chu, E. Y., Ming, M. E., Khan, Z. A., & Kovarik, C. L. (2018). Piloting the Use of Smartphones, Reminders, and Accountability Partners to Promote Skin Self-Examinations in Patients with Total Body Photography: A Randomized Controlled Trial. American journal of clinical dermatology, 19(5), 779–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40257-018-0372-7 
ScienceDirect. (n.d.). Self-monitoring. ScienceDirect Topics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/self-monitoring