TRUE OR FALSE. Are New Year’s resolutions really effective in changing your habits?

If the commitments made for the new year are often difficult to keep in the long term, the way of formulating them and the underlying motivations can constitute factors of success, according to one of the rare studies on the question.

Lose weight, take up sport, stop smoking… As 2024 approaches, good resolutions are emerging, and are strangely similar to those of last year. However, it is a popular tradition. According to the Ipsos Sport-Health barometer for the French Federation of Physical Education and Voluntary Gymnastics, which provides an overview of French people’s resolutions for 2024, 34% wish to practice regular physical or sporting activity, 23% promise to pass more time with their family, 23% want to reserve real moments of relaxation…

This same survey, detailed in La Dépêche du Midi , suggests that nearly three in five French people (59%) have managed to keep at least one of their good resolutions made at the start of 2023. But the effectiveness of these New Year’s commitments has long been debated. British psychologist Richard Wiseman, who followed more than 3,000 people trying to keep a resolution throughout 2007, found that only 12% had succeeded after a year, according to results published on his site (but not in a scientific journal). So, is it really useful to promise to change at the start of each year? Franceinfo disentangles the true from the false.

On the subject, scientific literature is rare. The largest study on New Year’s resolutions was conducted by Stockholm University (Sweden) with 1,067 volunteer participants throughout 2017, and published by the journal PLOS One. She observes that 55% of them managed to maintain their resolutions after a year. “This figure is impressive, because behavioral changes are not easy to implement”underlines to franceinfo Per Carlbring, co-author of the study and psychology researcher.

“In Sweden, New Year’s resolutions have a bad reputation. There’s always someone who says: ‘I only have one New Year’s resolution, and that’s to have none!’ So I wanted to check if this reputation corresponded to reality”, explains Per Carlbring. The Stockholm University researcher believes that this negative image “is not deserved” : “Resolutions can inspire significant, positive changes in people’s lives.”.

“Less effective” negative formulations

But to succeed, the way a resolution is formulated is decisive, the Swedish researchers observed. People who have had “approach-driven objectives”for example introducing good habits, were more successful (58.9%) than those who had set themselves “goals focused on avoidance” (47.1%), as “stop sweets”. Per Carlbring therefore advises taking a step back and transforming negative goals into positive goals: “Do you always eat a sweet treat at 3 p.m.? Maybe it’s because your blood sugar is low. In this case, you could set an ‘approach-oriented’ goal, i.e. eat an apple at 2 p.m., in order to solve your problem.” This study therefore suggests that with positive wording, New Year’s resolutions can have lasting effects, even after one year of follow-up.

“You can’t erase behavior, but you can replace it.”

Per Carlbring, psychology researcher at Stockholm University

at franceinfo

The participants in the Swedish study were divided into three groups, which benefited from different levels of support: a first group without any support, a second which received moderate support, and a third with reinforced support. The group that received an average level of support – a person designated to encourage them all year round, monthly follow-up and emails with information and exercises – had more success than the other two. How can we explain that the group most closely supported is not the one that has been most successful? Too much monitoring can prove counterproductive, suggests the Swedish researcher: “Maybe it reminded them that things weren’t going their way.”. The study also highlights that the most followed group was invited to formulate more precise objectives, which may have facilitated a feeling of failure.

Effects that diminish over time

Regardless of the group, the researchers still observed that the application of resolutions decreased over time. “At first, people are very enthusiastic, but sometimes they set goals that are too ambitious. It is important to know how to deal with relapse well, when it happens”believes Per Carlbring. “We can set an unrealistic goal and manage to achieve it, but only if we divide it into several intermediate objectives. For example, running a marathon for the summer of 2024 does not seem realistic, but it can be for 2025”illustrates the researcher.

What if the difficulty in persevering could be explained by the deep nature of motivations? “Losing weight is one of the most common New Year’s goals, and one that people tend to fail at.”observes Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester (United States) and expert on motivational issues, on his university’s website. “It’s often internal or external pressure, as opposed to a goal they might intrinsically value, like having better health or vitality. If the goal isn’t ‘authentic,’ and doesn’t come of their own values ​​or interests, the energy devoted to them quickly fades”analyzes the American researcher.

Stockholm University is preparing a new study on New Year’s resolutions. This time, the 2,000 participants will be divided into three different groups: one without support, one receiving social support and the last applying a method called “SMART” to better formulate its objective, which must be “specific, measurable, attractive and achievable, realistic and time-limited”. “Saving money is not specific. But making an automatic transfer of 50 euros per month to another account is”illustrates Per Carlbring.

Help others, rather than yourself

The first Swedish study also shows that the overwhelming majority of resolutions are self-focused: 33% relate to physical health, 20% to weight loss, 13% to eating habits, 9% to personal development, 5% to mental health or sleep… Richard Ryan, professor at the University of Rochester, offers an alternative to this type of resolution: helping others. According to a study conducted by the psychology researcher and published in 2010, participants experience deeper satisfaction when their goals are more oriented towards others than towards themselves.

For Richard Ryan, giving to others helps meet the three fundamental psychological needs identified in the “self-determination theory” : autonomy; the feeling of usefulness and competence; and social belonging, through work and connection to others. The foundations, according to the researcher, of human motivation. “Research shows it’s not only good for the world, but also very good for you”he assures.