The craving for the reward was what made people suddenly buy loads of toothpaste. In fact, the claim was false because the film is only natural and the toothpaste isn’t responsible to remove it, but since Claude had used a “cue” – removing the film – and also advertised a “reward” – beautiful teeth – people bought the toothpaste. However, once Claude advertised that brushing helped people remove the film that clung to their teeth, the sales rocketed. Incredibly, brushing one’s teeth was rare in the 20th century in America and people hardly brushed their teeth. To explain this better, Charles takes the example of Claude Hopkins – the man who used his skills to make toothpaste famous. Our cravings are so powerful that it drives us to develop habits unconsciously. In this chapter, Charles explains how cravings help us form new habits. In other words, we can control our habits if we simply understand how they work.Ĭhapter 2: The Craving Brain: How to Create New Habits After these two actions comes the third step, which is a reward where it sends a signal to the brain saying that the routine is worth remembering since it’s working well. The routine is the second step and this could either be mental, physical or emotional behavior that comes after the cue. The first step is the cue where a trigger alerts the brain to slip into an automatic mode to perform a routine. The process consists of three steps that continue in a loop. Similarly, we perform a lot of tasks just by pure habit because our brain saves efforts by clubbing sequences of several actions into routines that are automatic. The part of the brain that was responsible for remembering things were not controlling his habits and therefore, he could perform simple tasks easily. This made doctors understand that the importance of habits.

He couldn’t remember where his house was, but he never asked for directions and walked back home safely after his walk every day. Then, a series of bizarre events occurred and though Eugene couldn’t even recollect where his kitchen was located, he could easily satisfy his hunger by walking into the kitchen, opening the drawer and fishing out a jar of nuts. However, he began to have short-term memory problems after the surgery. Although Eugene was operated because of a virus that had almost destroyed his brain, Eugene recovered easily. This chapter begins with a story about Eugene Pauly who, through his sickness, helped scientists understand how we humans form habits. In this very first chapter, Charles gets straight to the point and talks about how habits form an important part of our lives. Chapter 1: The Habit Loop: How Habits Work

The power of habit price