How Habituation in Psychology Works and Affects Relationships

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHabituation ExamplesInfluential FactorsTheoriesHabituation in Relationships

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Table of Contents

Habituation Examples

Influential Factors

Theories

Habituation in Relationships

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At a GlanceA simple definition of habituation is getting so used to something in your environment (like a noise) that you stop noticing it.

At a Glance

A simple definition of habituation is getting so used to something in your environment (like a noise) that you stop noticing it.

Habituation is a decrease in response to astimulusafter repeated presentations. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines habituation as “growing accustomed to a situation or stimulus,” which diminishes its effectiveness.

For example, a new sound in your environment, such as a new ringtone for your phone, may initially draw your attention or even be distracting. As you become accustomed to this sound, you pay less attention to it, and your response diminishes. This process is an example of habituation.

In this article, we’ll look at some examples of habituation in your life, talk about why habituation happens, and go over some ways you can reduce habituation.

To understand how habituation works, let’s look at a few examples. You’ll find that the habituation phenomenon plays a role in many areas of your life, from learning to perception.

Learning

Habituation during learning is something that happens regularly in your everyday life, but you are probably unaware of it. In fact, habituation is acommon form of learning. It allows people to tune out non-essential stimuli and focus on the things that really demand attention.

Perception

Imagine that you are in your backyard when you hear a loud banging noise from your neighbor’s yard. The unusual sound immediately draws yourattention, and you wonder what is going on.

Over the next few days, the banging noise keeps up at a regular pace. Eventually, you just tune out the noise. This is an example of habituation in perception.

It’s not only the sound that prompts habituation—our other senses can also be affected.

Here’s another example: Every morning, you spritz on some perfume when you’re getting ready for work. Since you’re wearing it every day, it doesn’t take long for you tostop noticing the scent of your perfume, but others around you may notice the smell even though you’re no longer aware of it.

You can also easily become habituated to the quirks of your surroundings. Let’s say you move to a new apartment in the city that’s near the subway. At first, you might find the sound of the trains running at all hours of the day and night annoying, or even distressing. But after you’ve settled into your new place, the din of the subway noise just becomes part of your life, and you stop noticing it.

Pain HabituationCan you habituate to pain? Research suggests that you can, but this instance of habituation might be more brain-based than true desensitization to the sensation of pain itself.

Pain Habituation

Can you habituate to pain? Research suggests that you can, but this instance of habituation might be more brain-based than true desensitization to the sensation of pain itself.

Emotions

Habituation can also happen emotionally, like when we are exposed to a constant barrage of bad news and negative social media posts.

Studies have shown that habituation to the suffering of others can make people less likely to help, particularly if we believe that people have become “used to” experiencing repeated disasters.

Use in Psychotherapy

Some psychotherapy approaches rely on habituation. For example, in the treatment ofphobias, habituating people to the source of their fear is one way to help them overcome what they’re afraid of.

Exposure therapyuses progressive exposure to what people are afraid of to help them overcome a phobia.Here’s an example of how habituation in this case could help someone who is afraid of the dark:

Factors Impacting Habituation

Habituation does not always occur in the same way. Several factors can influence how quickly you become habituated to a stimulus. Some of the factors that affect habituation include:

Theories of Habituation

Habituation is an example ofnon-associative learning. In this type, there’s no reward or punishment associated with the stimulus. For example, you’re not experiencing pain or pleasure because of your neighbor’s banging noises.

There are two well-known psychological theories about why we experience habituation:

Habituation can have real-world consequences, including in oursocial relationships.For example, “relationship complacency” is a form of habituation. Here are a few reasons why this can happen:

Is Habituation Bad for Relationships?

How to Overcome Habituation in Relationships

Here are some things you can do to bring some of the initial sparks back into your relationship and reverse habituation:

Summary

Habituation allows us to tune out certain things in our environment so we can focus on what’s more important at the moment. It’s a normal part of our experience of the world. Habituation helps us function in environments where we are being inundated with sensory experiences and information.

At the same time, habituation can be problematic in our relationships if it leads us to take others for granted. Finding ways to reverse habituation with people we care about can go a long way to creating relationships that bring us love and joy.

How Hedonic Adaptation Robs You of Happiness

12 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.APA Dictionary of Psychology.Habituation.Klingner CM, Hasler C, Brodoehl S, Witte OW.Excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms underlying somatosensory habituation.Human Brain Mapping. 2012;35(1):152-160. doi:10.1002/hbm.22163Blumstein DT.Habituation and sensitization: new thoughts about old ideas.Animal Behaviour. 2016;120:255-262. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.05.012De Paepe A, Williams A, Crombez G.Habituation to pain: a motivational-ethological perspective.Pain. 2019;160(8):1693-1697. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001533‌University of Michigan.Exposure and desensitization.Jankowski J.Habituation’s effect on social networks as a potential factor silently crushing influence maximisation efforts.Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):19055. Published 2021 Sep 24. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98493-9Zagefka H.The habituation fallacy: Disaster victims who are repeatedly victimised are assumed to suffer less, and they are helped less.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2022;52(4):642-655. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2843Benito K, Walther M.Therapeutic process during exposure: Habituation model.Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 2015;6:147-157. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.01.006Rankin CH, Abrams T, Barry RJ, et al.Habituation revisited: an updated and revised description of the behavioral characteristics of habituation.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2009;92(2):135-138. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2008.09.012Steiner GZ, Barry RJ.The mechanism of dishabituation.Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 2014;8. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00014Julie Xuemei Hu, Shondrah Tarrezz Nash.Marriage and the Family. Routledge; 2019.Morton H, Gorzalka BB.Role of partner novelty in sexual functioning: a review.J Sex Marital Ther. 2015;41(6):593-609. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2014.958788

12 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.APA Dictionary of Psychology.Habituation.Klingner CM, Hasler C, Brodoehl S, Witte OW.Excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms underlying somatosensory habituation.Human Brain Mapping. 2012;35(1):152-160. doi:10.1002/hbm.22163Blumstein DT.Habituation and sensitization: new thoughts about old ideas.Animal Behaviour. 2016;120:255-262. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.05.012De Paepe A, Williams A, Crombez G.Habituation to pain: a motivational-ethological perspective.Pain. 2019;160(8):1693-1697. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001533‌University of Michigan.Exposure and desensitization.Jankowski J.Habituation’s effect on social networks as a potential factor silently crushing influence maximisation efforts.Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):19055. Published 2021 Sep 24. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98493-9Zagefka H.The habituation fallacy: Disaster victims who are repeatedly victimised are assumed to suffer less, and they are helped less.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2022;52(4):642-655. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2843Benito K, Walther M.Therapeutic process during exposure: Habituation model.Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 2015;6:147-157. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.01.006Rankin CH, Abrams T, Barry RJ, et al.Habituation revisited: an updated and revised description of the behavioral characteristics of habituation.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2009;92(2):135-138. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2008.09.012Steiner GZ, Barry RJ.The mechanism of dishabituation.Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 2014;8. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00014Julie Xuemei Hu, Shondrah Tarrezz Nash.Marriage and the Family. Routledge; 2019.Morton H, Gorzalka BB.Role of partner novelty in sexual functioning: a review.J Sex Marital Ther. 2015;41(6):593-609. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2014.958788

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

APA Dictionary of Psychology.Habituation.Klingner CM, Hasler C, Brodoehl S, Witte OW.Excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms underlying somatosensory habituation.Human Brain Mapping. 2012;35(1):152-160. doi:10.1002/hbm.22163Blumstein DT.Habituation and sensitization: new thoughts about old ideas.Animal Behaviour. 2016;120:255-262. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.05.012De Paepe A, Williams A, Crombez G.Habituation to pain: a motivational-ethological perspective.Pain. 2019;160(8):1693-1697. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001533‌University of Michigan.Exposure and desensitization.Jankowski J.Habituation’s effect on social networks as a potential factor silently crushing influence maximisation efforts.Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):19055. Published 2021 Sep 24. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98493-9Zagefka H.The habituation fallacy: Disaster victims who are repeatedly victimised are assumed to suffer less, and they are helped less.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2022;52(4):642-655. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2843Benito K, Walther M.Therapeutic process during exposure: Habituation model.Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 2015;6:147-157. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.01.006Rankin CH, Abrams T, Barry RJ, et al.Habituation revisited: an updated and revised description of the behavioral characteristics of habituation.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2009;92(2):135-138. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2008.09.012Steiner GZ, Barry RJ.The mechanism of dishabituation.Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 2014;8. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00014Julie Xuemei Hu, Shondrah Tarrezz Nash.Marriage and the Family. Routledge; 2019.Morton H, Gorzalka BB.Role of partner novelty in sexual functioning: a review.J Sex Marital Ther. 2015;41(6):593-609. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2014.958788

APA Dictionary of Psychology.Habituation.

Klingner CM, Hasler C, Brodoehl S, Witte OW.Excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms underlying somatosensory habituation.Human Brain Mapping. 2012;35(1):152-160. doi:10.1002/hbm.22163

Blumstein DT.Habituation and sensitization: new thoughts about old ideas.Animal Behaviour. 2016;120:255-262. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.05.012

De Paepe A, Williams A, Crombez G.Habituation to pain: a motivational-ethological perspective.Pain. 2019;160(8):1693-1697. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001533

‌University of Michigan.Exposure and desensitization.

Jankowski J.Habituation’s effect on social networks as a potential factor silently crushing influence maximisation efforts.Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):19055. Published 2021 Sep 24. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98493-9

Zagefka H.The habituation fallacy: Disaster victims who are repeatedly victimised are assumed to suffer less, and they are helped less.European Journal of Social Psychology. 2022;52(4):642-655. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2843

Benito K, Walther M.Therapeutic process during exposure: Habituation model.Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 2015;6:147-157. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.01.006

Rankin CH, Abrams T, Barry RJ, et al.Habituation revisited: an updated and revised description of the behavioral characteristics of habituation.Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2009;92(2):135-138. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2008.09.012

Steiner GZ, Barry RJ.The mechanism of dishabituation.Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 2014;8. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00014

Julie Xuemei Hu, Shondrah Tarrezz Nash.Marriage and the Family. Routledge; 2019.

Morton H, Gorzalka BB.Role of partner novelty in sexual functioning: a review.J Sex Marital Ther. 2015;41(6):593-609. doi:10.1080/0092623X.2014.958788

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