The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg, then a New York Times investigative reporter, opens The Power of Habit with a Pentagon program in Iraq that found it could pacify Kufa simply by removing the food vendors from the central plaza, and proceeds to argue that almost everything we think of as a choice is actually a habit. Drawing on neuroscience research on the basal ganglia, on case studies from companies including Procter and Gamble, Alcoa, Target, and Starbucks, and on long profiles of individual subjects from a brain-damaged patient named E.P. to civil rights organizer Rosa Parks, Duhigg builds a single working model: every habit is a loop of cue, routine, and reward, and any habit can be reshaped if you keep the cue and the reward and substitute a new routine. Published in 2012, the book stayed on the bestseller list for more than three years and became one of the defining popular books on behavior change.
Where The Power of Habit keeps showing up
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Books in conversation with The Power of Habit
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about The Power of Habit
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg argues most behavior runs on cue-routine-reward loops and that changing the routine while keeping the cue and reward is how habits actually shift. He runs the model through case studies at Alcoa, Target, Starbucks, and his own attempts to stop snacking.
The Power of Habit identifies the habit loop (cue, routine, reward) as the structural unit of behavior. Charles Duhigg argues that understanding and modifying this loop is the key to personal and organizational change.
Yes. The Power of Habit (2012) and Atomic Habits (2018) cover overlapping territory. Charles Duhigg's book is more journalistic with case studies; James Clear's is more practical with frameworks. Many readers find them complementary.
The Power of Habit was written by Charles Duhigg, published in 2012 by Objetiva.
The Power of Habit is 400 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Power of Habit takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Power of Habit is a standalone novel by Charles Duhigg, not part of a series.
The Power of Habit is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
