4E Cognition and the Intention-Action Gap: Conceptual Resources for Behavior Change

The disconnect between intentions and actions remains a central challenge for understanding human behavior and facilitating meaningful change. While embodied cognitive science emphasizes agent–environment interaction, its contributions to this issue have thus far been limited. We argue that embodied approaches offer valuable conceptual resources for addressing intentional behavior change, particularly when habits, identities, and narratives are understood as dynamic, multiscale organisational forms, and change itself as a process of multiscale realignment. Drawing on the 4E framework, where behavior and cognition are understood to be embodied, enacted, embedded, and extended, we explore how each dimension deepens our understanding of the intention–action gap and informs interventions for behavior change. In doing so, we aim to broaden the conceptual foundations of current intervention models and lay the groundwork for more integrative, multiscale approaches to behavior change.