They wake up, shower, get dressed and automatically pull a fresh pair of socks from the drawer. Yesterday's pair goes straight into the laundry basket, even if it looks perfectly fine. Ask why, and the answer may simply be, “Why would I wear them again?” Psychology suggests that this apparently ordinary hygiene behavior offers an interesting window into habit automaticity, contextual cues, contamination avoidance and learned hygiene norms. For many people, changing socks every day may no longer feel like a decision at all. Psychologists Wendy Wood and David Neal's research on habits helps explain why: once a behavior has been repeatedly performed in the same context, environmental cues can begin triggering it automatically, with relatively little conscious deliberation.
