Why you're not as in control of your life as you thought

How much control do we really have over our own lives? It’s a question that's preoccupied philosophers and theologians for millennia.

- Helen Coffey, The Independent

US President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to psychologist Daniel Kahneman in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC.

(Tribune News Service)

But whether you're a firm believer in predeterminism or adhere to the school of thought that humans forge their own destinies in a world ruled by chaos, one thing is certain: much of your day is spent engaged in activities that you did not consciously decide to do.

You could call these actions habits: non-conscious processes usually triggered by environment and context. For example, you wake up, go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. It's not that you have “decided” to do it; it’s just what you always do. And once you've started brushing, you're even less actively engaged. You're not thinking about how to brush your teeth, piloting pioneering new techniques to better scrub the back molars. You just do it, unthinkingly, while your mind wanders off elsewhere.

Experts in behavioural science have long known that swathes of our days are spent engaged in routine, but new research has claimed that even more of our actions than previously thought may be habitual rather than intentional. A study from the University of Surrey, University of South Carolina, and Central Queensland University, published in Psychology & Health, found that two-thirds of our daily behaviours are initiated “on autopilot”, or out of habit. The international research team surveyed 105 participants from the UK and Australia, sending six random prompts to their phones each day for a week that asked them to describe what they were doing, and whether it was triggered out of habit or done with intention. They found that 65 percent of daily behaviours were habitually initiated, meaning people were prompted to do them out of routine rather than making a conscious decision.