Power of Habit, The Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change

This fascinating book reveals how habits are made, broken and, more than anything, manipulated. It's full of unbelievable stories, such as:

·The supermarket analyst who came up with a way of determining which women were pregnant before they even knew - so he could influence what they bought in his store. One day a furious father came in complaining that his 15-year-old daughter was being targeted with pregnancy products; the store apologised and considered scrapping the programme. A week later, the father returned to apologise - his daughter was, they'd discovered that morning, pregnant!

·Eugene, the brain-damaged patient who can't form new memories or even register what's going on. When his wife came home to find him missing, she panicked - but it turned out he'd gone for a walk, and had learned, unconsciously, his way home - as well as other skills, abilities and habits.

·The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Starbucks, and numerous other world-leading companies and brands The Power of Habit is a journey through the emerging science of habit formation, a field of research that has quietly transformed our understanding of human behaviour.



Prizewinning journalist Charles Duhigg examines the ways in which people are learning to radically manipulate habits - whether it's smoking cigarettes, buying a particular brand of dish detergent or automatically firing a gun at an enemy soldier. Once readers understand how habits really work, and how change occurs, they can engineer new habits or get rid of old ones with the same basic tools. This wake-up call will undoubtedly inspire people to re-think many aspects of their daily lives.