Category: Habits

The bad habit of biting your nails is much more common than you might think.

Some studies have found about one-quarter of children bite their nails habitually (Ghanizadeh & Shekoohi, 2011), others say it may peak at almost 45 percent in adolescence (Peterson et al., 1994).

More surprisingly, the prevalence of biting nails amongst adults may be just as high, with some estimates at 50 percent (Hansen et al., 1990).

Here’s my 8-step guide on how to stop biting your nails based on the psychological research:

1. Motivation to stop biting nails

It might seem redundant to say, but any change, including to stop biting your nails has to be desired, really desired.

And for such a simple behaviour, biting your nails is surprisingly hard to quit, perhaps partly because it doesn’t seem that big a deal and our hands are always with us.

This is especially a problem if you are trying to change someone else’s behaviour.

One method for boosting motivation  to stop biting nails is to think carefully about the positive aspects of changing the habit, for example attractive looking nails and a sense of accomplishment.

Also, make the negative aspects of nail-biting as dramatic as possible in your mind.

If you tend to think it’s no big deal then you’re unlikely to make the change.

In addition, you can try mental contrasting, which has been backed by psychological research on habit change.

2. Suppressing nail biting does not work

It doesn’t matter if it’s you or your child that you’re trying to change, suppression does not work.

Punishing a child for nail biting is a bad move.

They will know it’s a way to attract attention and they will use it.

The same is true when changing your own habit of nail biting.

Trying to tell your unconscious to stop doing something is like trying to tell a child.

It reacts childishly by doing the complete opposite.

Here’s the technical explanation for why thought suppression is counter-productive.

3. Replace nail biting with another habit

One of the keys to habit change is developing a new, good (or at least neutral) response that can compete with the old, bad habit.

The best types are ones that are incompatible with your old habit.

So, for biting your nails you could try:

• chewing gum,
• putting your hands in your pockets,
• twiddling your thumbs,
• playing with a ball or an elastic band,
• clasping your hands together,
• eating a carrot,
• or clipping or filing them instead.

4. Visual reminders to stop nail biting

If you keep your nails clipped short then there is less temptation to bite them.

Some people recommend having a manicure because the money spent, along with how much better your nails look, will deter you from biting them.

You could also paint your nails a bright colour as a reminder, although most men seem to find this look difficult to pull off—I can’t imagine why.

Another method is to wear something around your wrist, like a bracelet or elastic band, to remind you of your goal.

Remember that habits live in the unconscious so you bite your nails automatically.

Visual cues are a way of reminding you of the change you want to make.

Research has even shown that a wristband that is difficult to remove can be helpful (Koritzy & Yechiam, 2011).

5. Identify nail biting situations

Habits are heavily bound up with situations.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to spot habits because they are performed unconsciously.

However you may spot particular times during the day when nail biting occurs, like while watching TV.

If you can bear it, enlist those around you to help point out when you are biting your nails.

Painting your fingernails with that nasty tasting fluid can help pull you out of autopilot and alert you to situations in which the habit is performed.

But it probably won’t work on its own.

Some people even say they get to like, or at least tolerate, the taste!

6. Thoughts linked to nail biting

Just like situations, our thoughts and feelings cue up our behaviour.

If you can spot the types of things you are thinking about or feeling when nail biting, then this can help.

Some people like to use mindfulness as a way of increasing self-awareness.

When you notice the thoughts coming (for example, anxiety) you can prepare your alternative response (for example, getting the worry beads out of your pocket).

7. Repeat the new habit

Your new replacement habit will build with repetition, but at first it will have to compete with your old habit.

Try to avoid beating yourself up for nail biting slip-ups, as they are bound to happen.

It’s a gradual process. (See: The Surprising Motivational Power of Self-Compassion)

8. Take photos of attractive nails

Keeping the new response going can be hard.

One method to make your progress to stop nail biting more obvious to yourself is to take pictures of your nails on your phone every few days (Craig, 2010).

When you see how far you’ve come (or, alternately how little progress has been achieved), this should help push you on.

Remember that old habits do not die; they lie in the unconscious waiting to be reactivated.

Go easy on yourself if you slip-up and start biting your nails again, but remember that a lot of the battle with bad habits is about self-awareness.

Does nail biting reveal psychological issues?

People often wonder if biting your nails is a symptom of a deeper problem.

Perhaps if that deeper problem were fixed, the nail-biting would go away on its own?

Opinion is divided on whether this is true.

Counter-intuitively, there is no strong evidence that biting your nails is related to anxiety.

Worse, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to use introspection to probe the unconscious for the reasons for our behaviours (yes, that’s why they call it the unconscious!).

Most, though, agree that whatever the cause, the learned habit needs to be targeted.

So start with these approaches and see how it goes.

If it’s not working, try making small tweaks, like using a different replacement habit, and then have another go.

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The “question-behaviour effect” can help motivate you.

“Will you exercise this year?”

Just being asked that question could be enough to change your behaviour.

That’s the result of a survey of 40 years of research in this area.

The study found that the so-called “question-behaviour effect” can be powerful in many different areas of life.

Asking a question is probably better than making a statement for influencing behaviour.

Dr Dave Sprott, one of the study’s authors, said:

“If you question a person about performing a future behavior, the likelihood of that behavior happening will change.”

When people are asked whether they recycle, of example, it is a subtle reminder that it is good for the environment.

If they don’t already recycle, or exercise, or eat healthily, it can lead to uncomfortable feelings.

Recycling — or whatever the behaviour is — will alleviate those feelings.

Professor Eric R. Spangenberg, the study’s first author, explained:

“We found the effect is strongest when questions are used to encourage behavior with personal and socially accepted norms, such as eating healthy foods or volunteering.

But it can be used effectively to even influence consumer purchases, such as a new computer.”

The relatively simple technique has been found to work in a variety of different domains.

These include cheating less in college, reducing gender stereotyping, encouraging exercising and recycling.

Dr Sprott said:

“It is pretty easy to ask a question, and it can be done in a variety of means, such as ads, mailers, online media, and interpersonal communications.”

Sometimes, though, the technique does not work as well — usually when people already perform the target behaviour a lot.

For example, asking someone if they will be doing a lot of drinking or skipping classes can cause them to increase these behaviours.

Questions can work much better, the researchers found, than statements.

→ Read on: 10 Step Guide for Making Your New Year’s Resolutions

The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology (Spangenberg et al., 2015).

Simple procedure enhances flexible thinking and shakes off old ideas.

Simply washing your hands could be enough to help let go of old ideas, new research finds.

A team of psychologists at the University of Toronto has found that cleaning your hands is enough to leave behind old goals and allow you to pursue new ones.

For the study people were ‘primed’ with a goal.

Priming involves unconsciously activating a goal in someone’s mind.

The results showed that when people subsequently wiped their hands, they forgot about this unconscious goal.

Ms Ping Dong, the study’s first author, said:

“For people who were primed with a health goal, for example, using the handwipe reduced their subsequent tendency to behave in a healthy manner — they were more likely to choose a chocolate bar over a granola bar.”

Other studies have shown that physical cleansing can help a person get over guilt from immoral behaviour.

Similarly, wiping the body clean also seems to help wipe the mind clean.

Ms Dong pointed out, though, that this study only tested the short-term effects of cleansing on goal pursuit.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Dong & Lee et al., 2017).

Psychologists find first experimental evidence for new way of getting out of a rut.

It may be possible to deliberately ‘forget’ long-standing habits, according to new experiments carried out at Regensburg University in Germany.

According to this new research, merely telling yourself to forget about the habit after performing it may prove helpful.

This adds to the techniques for changing habits which have support from psychological research.

Two types of these are:

• Quick reactions: noticing that you are performing a bad habit and changing the response.
• Implementation intentions: making a specific plan in advance about how you are going to behave in a particular situation. For example, if I get hungry between meals, then eat an apple not a cake.

But what about after you’ve performed the habit you want to change? Is there anything you can do then?

In the experiment, participants were taught a habit which involved connections between words and particular responses (Dreisbach & Bäuml, 2014).

Sometimes, though, halfway through learning the habit, participants were casually told to forget what they’d learnt so far.

The results showed that deliberately forgetting about a newly formed habit affected how that habit was performed.

When people were told to forget that habit, they duly did as they were told.

Naturally, this study only tests the procedure in controlled laboratory conditions, rather than in everyday life.

Also, the habits were newly formed, rather than long-standing.

Nevertheless, the technique could prove a useful addition to the other methods of habit change that are well-established.

Image credit: frank fani

Making Habits, Breaking Habits explains how to bend habits to your will—and become happier, more creative, and more productive.

My book, Making Habits, Breaking Habits is out now in paperback in the US.

Here is the publisher’s blurb for it:

“Say you want to start going to the gym or practicing a musical instrument. How long should it take before you stop having to force it and start doing it automatically?

The surprising answers are found in Making Habits, Breaking Habits, a psychologist’s popular examination of one of the most powerful and under-appreciated processes in the mind. Although people like to think that they are in control, much of human behavior occurs without any decision-making or conscious thought.

Drawing on hundreds of fascinating studies, psychologist Jeremy Dean busts the myths to finally explain why seemingly easy habits, like eating an apple a day, can be surprisingly difficult to form, and how to take charge of your brain’s natural “autopilot” to make any change stick.

Witty and intriguing, Making Habits, Breaking Habits shows how behavior is more than just a product of what you think. It is possible to bend your habits to your will—and be happier, more creative, and more productive.”

And you can read my blurb here.

→ Check out the reviews and get the first chapter on Amazon.com.