The Power of Habit

The subtitle for this book could be “How to use habit to direct human behavior”. Most of the examples are less about habit on a personal level and more about them on a societal level. One example that I enjoyed was about a time in Iraq where people were collecting in a square everyday. Eventually someone would throw a loud firecracker (or worse) into the mix and everyone would flee – a dangerous situation. Rather than using force to move people out, they moved the food vendors a block away. Now the crowd couldn't hang around for hours on end, as their food habits caused them to disperse earlier.