The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (50 page)

4.17
HQ 71-471 (“Abnormal Sexual Relations, Including Sexual Crimes”)
Malcolm Spector and John I. Kitsuse,
Constructing Social Problems
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2001).

4.18
He couldn’t tell if they were leaking
Phelps and Abrahamson,
No Limits
.

4.19
It was one additional victory
For further discussion of habits and Olympic swimmers, see Daniel Chambliss, “The Mundanity of Excellence,”
Sociological Theory
7 (1989): 70–86.

4.20
He was killed instantly
Paul O’Neill keynote speech, June 25, 2002, at the Juran Center, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

4.21
Rural areas, in particular
“Infant Mortality Rates, 1950–2005,”
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779935.html
; William H. Berentsen, “German Infant Mortality 1960–1980,”
Geographical Review
77 (1987): 157–70; Paul Norman et al., “Geographical Trends in Infant Mortality: England and Wales, 1970–2006,”
Health Statistics Quarterly
40 (2008): 18–29.

4.22
Today, the U.S. infant mortality
World Bank, World Development Indicators. In an email sent in response to fact-checking questions, O’Neill wrote: “This is correct, but I would not take credit for our society doing a better job in reducing infant mortality.”

4.23
They began diets and joined gyms
T. A. Wadden, M. L. Butryn, and C. Wilson, “Lifestyle Modification for the Management of Obesity,”
Gastro-enterology
132 (2007): 2226–38.

4.24
Then, in 2009 a group of researchers
J. F. Hollis et al., “Weight Loss During the Intensive Intervention Phase of the Weight-Loss Maintenance Trial,”
American Journal of Preventative Medicine
35 (2008): 118–26. See also L. P. Svetkey et al., “Comparison of Strategies for Sustaining Weight Loss, the Weight Loss Maintenance Randomized Controlled Trial,”
JAMA
299 (2008): 1139–48; A. Fitch and J. Bock, “Effective Dietary Therapies for Pediatric
Obesity Treatment,”
Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
10 (2009): 231–36; D. Engstrom, “Eating Mindfully and Cultivating Satisfaction: Modifying Eating Patterns in a Bariatric Surgery Patient,”
Bariatric Nursing and Surgical Patient Care
2 (2007): 245–50; J. R. Peters et al., “Eating Pattern Assessment Tool: A Simple Instrument for Assessing Dietary Fat and Cholesterol Intake,”
Journal of the American Dietetic Association
94
(
1994): 1008–13; S. M. Rebro et al., “The Effect of Keeping Food Records on Eating Patterns,”
Journal of the American Dietetic Association
98 (1998): 1163–65.

4.25
“After a while, the journal”
For more on weight loss studies, see R. R. Wing and James O. Hill, “Successful Weight Loss Maintenance,”
Annual Review of Nutrition
21 (2001): 323–41; M. L. Klem et al., “A Descriptive Study of Individuals Successful at Long-Term Maintenance of Substantial Weight Loss,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
66 (1997): 239–46; M. J. Mahoney, N. G. Moura, and T. C. Wade, “Relative Efficacy of Self-Reward, Self-Punishment, and Self-Monitoring Techniques for Weight Loss,”
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
40 (1973): 404–7; M. J. Franz et al., “Weight Loss Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Weight-Loss Clinical Trials with a Minimum 1-Year Follow-up,”
Journal of the American Dietetic Association
107 (2007): 1755–67; A. DelParigi et al., “Successful Dieters Have Increased Neural Activity in Cortical Areas Involved in the Control of Behavior,”
International Journal of Obesity
31 (2007): 440–48.

4.26
researchers referred to as “grit”
Jonah Lehrer, “The Truth About Grit,”
The Boston Globe,
August 2, 2009.

4.27
“despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress”
A. L. Duckworth et al., “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
92 (2007): 1087–1101.

5.1
willpower is the single most important
J. P. Tangney, R. F. Baumeister, and A. L. Boone, “High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success,”
Journal of Personality
72, no. 2 (2004): 271–324; Paul Karoly, “Mechanisms of Self-Regulation: A Systems View,”
Annual Review of Psychology
44 (1993): 23–52; James J. Gross, Jane M. Richards, and Oliver P. John, “Emotional Regulation in Everyday Life,” in
Emotion Regulation in Families: Pathways to Dysfunction and Health,
ed. Douglas K. Snyder, Jeffry A. Simpson, and Jan N. Hughes (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2006); Katleen De Stobbeleir, Susan Ashford, and Dirk Buyens, “From Trait and Context to Creativity at Work: Feedback-Seeking Behavior as a Self-Regulation Strategy for Creative Performance,” Vlerick Leuven Gent Working Paper Series
,
September 17, 2008;
Babette Raabe, Michael Frese, and Terry A. Beehr, “Action Regulation Theory and Career Self-Management,”
Journal of Vocational Behavior
70 (2007): 297–311; Albert Bandura, “The Primacy of Self-Regulation in Health Promotion,”
Applied Psychology
54 (2005): 245–54; Robert G. Lord et al., “Self-Regulation at Work,”
Annual Review of Psychology
61 (2010): 543–68; Colette A. Frayne and Gary P. Latham, “Application of Social Learning Theory to Employee Self-Management of Attendance,”
Journal of Applied Psychology
72 (1987): 387–92; Colette Frayne and J. M. Geringer, “Self-Management Training for Improving Job Performance: A Field Experiment Involving Salespeople,”
Journal of Applied Psychology
85 (2000): 361–72.

5.2
“Self-discipline has a bigger effect on”
Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents,”
Psychological Science
16 (2005): 939–44.

5.3
Executives wrote workbooks that
Information on Starbucks training methods is drawn from numerous interviews, as well as the company’s training materials. Information on training materials comes from copies provided by Starbucks employees and court records, including the following internal Starbucks documents and training manuals:
Starbucks Coffee Company Partner Guide, U.S. Store Version; Learning Coach Guide; In-Store Learning Coaches Guide; Shift Supervisor Learning Journey; Retail Management Training; Supervisory Skills Facilitator Guide; Supervisory Skills Partner Workbook; Shift Supervisor Training: Store Manager’s Planning and Coaches Guide; Managers’ Guide: Learning to Lead, Level One and Two; Supervisory Skills: Learning to Lead Facilitators Guide; First Impressions Guide; Store Manager Training Plan/Guide; District Manager Training Plan/Guide; Partner Resources Manual; Values Walk.
In a statement sent in response to fact-checking inquiries, a Starbucks representative wrote: “In reviewing, we felt that your overall theme focuses on emotional intelligence (EQ) and that we attract partners who need development in this area—this is not true holistically. It’s important to note that 70 percent of U.S. partners are students and learning in a lot of ways in their life. What Starbucks provides—and partners are inclined to join because of it—is an environment that matches their values, a place to be a part of something bigger (like community), an approach that focuses on problem solving by showing not telling and a successful way to deliver inspired service.” The company added that “we’d like to note that as part of our Customer Service Vision, our partners are trusted completely and are empowered to use their best judgment. We believe that this level of trust and empowerment is unique, and that partners rise to the occasion when we treat them with respect.”

5.4
It was as if the marshmallow-ignoring kids
Harriet Mischel and Walter Mischel, “The Development of Children’s Knowledge of Self-Control Strategies,
”
Child Development
54 (1983), 603–19; W. Mischel, Y. Shoda, and M. I. Rodriguez, “Delay of Gratification in Children,”
Science
244 (1989): 933–38; Walter Mischel et al., “The Nature of Adolescent Competencies Predicted by Preschool Delay of Gratification,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
54 (1988): 687–96; J. Metcalfe and W. Mischel, “A Hot/Cool-System Analysis of Delay of Gratification: Dynamics of Will Power,”
Psychological Review
106 (1999): 3–19; Jonah Lehrer, “The Secret of Self Control,”
The New Yorker,
May 18, 2009.

5.5
Some have suggested it helps clarify
In a fact-checking email, Muraven wrote: “There is research to suggest that marital problems spring from low self-control and that depletion contributes to poor outcomes when couples are discussing tense relationship issues. Likewise, we have found that on days that require more self-control than average, people are more likely to lose control over their drinking. There is also some research that suggests depleted individuals make poorer decisions than nondepleted individuals. These findings may be extended to explain extramarital affairs or mistakes by physicians, but that has not been” directly shown to be a cause-and-effect relationship.

5.6
“If you use it up too early”
Roy F. Baumeister et al., “Ego-Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
18 (1998): 130–50; R. F. Baumeister, M. Muraven, and D. M. Tice, “Self-Control as a Limited Resource: Regulatory Depletion Patterns,”
Psychological Bulletin
126 (1998): 247–59; R. F. Baumeister, M. Muraven, and D. M. Tice, “Longitudinal Improvement of Self-Regulation Through Practice: Building Self-Control Strength Through Repeated Exercise,”
Journal of Social Psychology
139 (1999): 446–57; R. F. Baumeister, M. Muraven, and D. M. Tice, “Ego Depletion: A Resource Model of Volition, Self-Regulation, and Controlled Processing,”
Social Cognition
74 (2000): 1252–65; Roy F. Baumeister and Mark Muraven, “Self-Regulation and Depletion of Limited Resources: Does Self-Control Resemble a Muscle?”
Psychological Bulletin
126 (2000): 247–59; See also M. S. Hagger et al., “Ego Depletion and the Strength Model of Self-Control: A Meta-Analysis,”
Psychological Bulletin
136 (2010): 495–25; R. G. Baumeister, K. D. Vohs, and D. M. Tice, “The Strength Model of Self-Control,”
Current Directions in Psychological Science
16 (2007): 351–55; M. I. Posne and M. K. Rothbart, “Developing Mechanisms of Self-Regulation,”
Development and Psychopathology
12 (2000): 427–41; Roy F. Baumeister and Todd F. Heatherton, “Self-Regulation Failure: An Overview,”
Psychological Inquiry
7 (1996): 1–15; Kathleen D. Vohs et al., “Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control: A Limited-Resource Account of Decision Making, Self-Regulation, and Active Initiative,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
94 (2008): 883–98; Daniel Romer et al., “Can Adolescents Learn Self-Control? Delay of Gratification in the Development of Control over Risk Taking,”
Prevention Science
11 (2010):
319–30. In a fact-checking email, Muraven wrote: “Our research suggests that people often don’t even realize that they are depleted and that the first act of self-control affected them. Instead, exerting self-control causes people to be less willing to work hard on subsequent self-control efforts (ultimately, this is a theory of motivation, not cognition).… [E]ven after the most depleting day, people still don’t urinate on the floor. Again, this suggests the motivational aspect of the theory—they lack the motivation to force themselves to do things that are less important to them. I realize this may seem like splitting hairs, but it is critical to understand that self-control doesn’t fail because the person cannot muster the needed resources. Instead it fails because the effort seems too great for the payoff. Basically, I don’t want the next murderer to say that he was depleted so he couldn’t control himself.”

5.7
They enrolled two dozen people
Megan Oaten and K. Cheng, “Longitudinal Gains in Self-Regulation from Regular Physical Exercise,”
Journal of Health Psychology
11 (2006): 717–33. See also Roy F. Baumeister et al., “Self-Regulation and Personality: How Interventions Increase Regulatory Success, and How Depletion Moderates the Effects of Traits on Behavior,”
Journal of Personality
74 (2006): 1773–1801.

5.8
So they designed another experiment
Megan Oaten and K. Cheng, “Improvements in Self-Control from Financial Monitoring,”
Journal of Economic Psychology
28 (2007): 487–501.

5.9
fifteen fewer cigarettes each day
Roy F. Baumeister et al., “Self-Regulation and Personality.”

5.10
They enrolled forty-five
Ibid.

5.11
Heatherton, a researcher at Dartmouth
For a selection of Heatherton’s fascinating work, see
Todd F. Heatherton, Ph.D.,
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~heath/#Pubs
last modified June 30, 2009.

5.12
Many of these schools have dramatically
Lehrer, “The Secret of Self Control.”

5.13
A five-year-old who can follow
In a fact-checking email, Dr. Heatherton expanded upon this idea: “Exactly how the brain does this is somewhat unclear, although I propose that people develop better frontal control over subcortical reward centers.… The repeated practice helps strengthen the ‘muscle’ (although clearly it is not a muscle; more likely it is better prefrontal cortical control or the development of a strong network of brain regions involved in controlling behavior).” For more information, see Todd F. Heatherton and Dylan D. Wagner, “Cognitive Neuroscience of Self-Regulation Failure,”
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
15 (2011): 132–39.