Stress & Bad Habits
A new literature review explains the difference between the two main learning systems in the brain, goal-directed learning and habit learning, and how stress can cause a shift in these systems. Goal-directed learning is initiated in the thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) and habit learning is controlled by the emotional brain (amygdala and hippocampus).
During stressful situations, stress hormones are released in the brain. This weakens our goal-directed learning capacity and strengthens habit learning. Stress increases the use of habitual strategies at the expense of goal-directed strategies. When we experience excessive stress, which scientists call threat processing, our brains shift from thinking brain executive function control toward emotional brain automatic habitual behavior. Think of this as the tension between the willpower we exert to make healthy choices and the less healthful bad habits that provide some short-term comfort during stress.
When we have low or no stress, our thinking brain can inhibit bad habits. During stress, our thinking brain networks are downregulated, and our habitual behavior takes over. Stress narrows our attention, enhances our receptiveness to overly simple information, weakens our interest in more complex and nuanced information, impairs our decision-making, and creates a focus on immediate outcomes. Very often, we simply want to feel better. This is due to our brain chemistry.
These researchers are planning additional studies to investigate the threat-based neural switch between learning systems.
Takeaway: Bad habits are hard to control when we are under stress. Because of our brain chemistry, we need to reduce stress to improve bad habits.
Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.
The Legal Brain: A Lawyer’s Guide to Well-being and Better Job Performance is available on Amazon and Cambridge University Press (AUSTIN24 at checkout for 20% discount from Cambridge).
One reviewer said:
The Legal Brain is magnificent. The book goes beyond general intelligence and emotional intelligence to explain neuro-intelligence: the ways lawyers can cultivate habits that promote brain health – because lawyers’ central asset is their brain. Professor Debra Austin has written an extremely accessible book, packed with information about how to overcome some of lawyers’ most significant challenges, such as perfectionism, trained pessimism, and the imposter syndrome. Beyond that, The Legal Brain is an uplifting read, sprinkled with thoughtful, unusual, and inspirational quotes, and offering specific checklists and action plans. It contains powerful tools for lawyers to detox, reset, and become more productive and satisfied in their life and work.
Nancy Levit, author of The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law, Associate Dean for Faculty and Curators’ Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Source
Dezso Nemeth, et al., The interplay between subcortical and prefrontal brain structures in shaping ideological belief formation and updating - ScienceDirect, 57 Current Opinion in Behavioral Science 101385, 2024.
