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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg draws on research about how habits form and change, with stories from business, sports and the civil rights movement.
- Author and origin
- Charles Duhigg (United States)Original language: English. Hardcover: Random House, 28 February 2012, 400 pages (Penguin Random House page). Random House Trade Paperbacks edition: 7 January 2014, 416 pages, with a new afterword by the author.
- Genre and form
- Nonfiction (Self-help and advice)Memoirs, clinical case collections, popular psychology, self-help, and histories or critiques of psychological science.
- Pairing and evidence
- Popular synthesisA trade psychology or self-help book. Each profile states what was inspected and whether a research paper is paired.
- Sources inspected
- 0 text/abstract inspected, 2 metadata checked (of 2)0 with the primary text or archive/edition record checked, 0 with an indexed abstract read, 2 with bibliographic metadata checked, 0 not verified.
The work and edition history
Charles Duhigg’s 2012 book draws together research and stories about habits in business, sports, and social movements. The publisher lists the original hardcover and a 2014 paperback with a new afterword.
Psychological reading
Questions to bring: in the laboratory, a habit is a learned response triggered by context; does a company or a social movement have habits in that sense, or is the word being stretched? For each story, what shows that a habit rather than something else explains the outcome? When a book says that understanding habits helps change them, what would a test of that claim look like?
Why it earns inclusion
A familiar trade book for discussing learning by reinforcement and how research language travels into advice (sections 6.1 and 6.3 are candidate links, not confirmed). It invites a comparison between a story told well and a result measured well.
Academic pairing and claim scope
No research paper is paired. The related record for Atomic Habits pairs a study of habit automaticity by Lally and colleagues; reading the two entries together shows how a measured study differs from a narrative account. This profile did not check the research the book cites.
Limits and controversies
The stories in the book were not checked, and a story can illustrate a mechanism without showing that it caused the outcome. The publisher's statements that understanding habits can help with exercise, weight loss and productivity are marketing and are not evidence here. This profile offers no behavior-change advice.
Evidence behind the claims
The hardcover was published by Random House on 28 February 2012 (400 pages); a Random House Trade Paperbacks edition followed on 7 January 2014 with a new afterword.
The publisher describes the book as drawing on science about how habits form and change, with stories from business, sports and the civil rights movement.
Authors and researchers
- Charles Duhigg. Author of the book.
In the Psy101 course
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 6.3: Operant ConditioningChapter 6, Learning. Concept. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Candidate link: operant conditioning and reinforcement.
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 6.1: What Is Learning?Chapter 6, Learning. Concept. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Candidate link: what learning is.
Educational reading guide only, not clinical diagnosis or treatment guidance. This course map indicates introductory curriculum relevance rather than clinical proof.See the full course map.
Sources and inspection
Of 2 cited sources, 0 had primary text or archive/edition records checked, 0 had an indexed abstract read, and 2 had bibliographic metadata checked (0 unverified). Literary works and memoirs are distinguished from empirical research studies.
- [1]House, P. R. (n.d.-k). The power of habit (penguin random house product page). Penguin Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/202855/the-power-of-habit-by-charles-duhigg/Publisher or bibliographic record. Work, edition, or catalog record.Bibliographic metadata or reference record checkedProduct page inspected on 2026-10-23 through a model-written page extraction: formats, dates, page counts and the visible part of the description. The description, praise and format details were partly collapsed. Book not read.
- [2]Open Library (Internet Archive). (2012). The power of habit (open library work and edition records). Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16015154WArchive or library record. Work, edition, or catalog record.Bibliographic metadata or reference record checkedOpen Library edition list inspected on 2026-10-23: 2012 editions and the 2014 Random House Trade Paperbacks edition. catalog metadata only.