The automatic activation of goaldirected behaviour: the case of travel habit

Abstract In the present paper, automaticity in habitual travel mode choice behaviour was investigated. Expanding on the idea that habits are mentally represented, it was proposed that when travel behaviour is habitual, activation of a travel goal automatically activates a travel mode in memory. In an experiment, participants were presented with travel goals (e.g. having to go to the university) and asked to mention a transport mode. The typical travel mode choice for those destinations was either permitted, or not permitted under conditions of cognitive load or not. Results showed that suppressing habitual responses is di¤cult, and often not successful under conditions of cognitive load, indicating that a transport mode choice can become automatically associated with travel goals