Charles Duhigg - Power of habit

I first became interested in the science of habits eight years ago, as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad. The US military, it occurred to me as I watched it in action, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history… ’had been in Iraq for about two months when I heard about an officer conducting an impromptu habit-modification programme in Kufa, a small city 90 miles south of the capital. He was an army major who had analysed videotapes of recent riots and had identified a pattern: violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and all hell would break loose.

When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Masjid al-Kufa, or Great Mosque of Kufa. Throughout the afternoon, it grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. Iraqi police, sensing trouble, radioed the base and asked US troops to stand by. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab-sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8:00 p.m., everyone was gone.