A Theory of Unconscious Thought
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23335348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ap Dijksterhuis (University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), Loran F Nordgren (0000-0002-3123-5908, University of Amsterdam) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 95-109 |
| Publication date | 2006-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Perspectives on Psychological Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1745-6916 • E-ISSN: 1745-6924 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00007.x |
| PMID | 26151465 |
| OpenAlex | W2136940446 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 142 |
| References cited | 55 |
We present a theory about human thought named the unconscious-thought theory (UTT). The theory is applicable to decision making, impression formation, attitude formation and change, problem solving, and creativity. It distinguishes between two modes of thought: unconscious and conscious. Unconscious thought and conscious thought have different characteristics, and these different characteristics make each mode preferable under different circumstances. For instance, contrary to popular belief, decisions about simple issues can be better tackled by conscious thought, whereas decisions about complex matters can be better approached with unconscious thought. The relations between the theory and decision strategies, and between the theory and intuition, are discussed. We end by discussing caveats and future directions.
Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Creativity · Epistemology · Intuition · Psychoanalysis · Unconscious mind · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Secondary School Leaving Examinations
Should I go with my gut? Investigating the benefits of emotion-focused decision making
With a little help for our thoughts
The unconscious regulation of emotion
Where creativity resides
The Automaticity of Social Life
Escape Decision-Making under Real Fire and Simulated Fire Conditions
The Maximizing Mind-Set
Thinking styles and decision making
Implicitly imprinting the past on the present
Commitment insurance
Do people realize how their partners make them feel? Relationship enhancement motives and stress determine the link between implicitly assessed partner attitudes and relationship satisfaction
Escaping affect
The benefits of simply observing
Implicit interpersonal evaluations as a risk factor for suicidality
Mediating between the muse and the masses
Predicting actual behavior from the explicit and implicit self-concept of personality
Fostering partner dependence as trust insurance
Unconscious integration
Making Appropriate New Choices Through Unconscious Thought Based on New Goals
Knowledge and Action
Automaticity and the Unconscious
Decision Making, Psychology of
Nonconscious processes and health.
Automaticity in social-cognitive processes
The Multiple Self-Aspects Framework
Do Conscious Thoughts Cause Behavior?
A model for programmatic assessment fit for purpose
Unconscious influences on decision making
Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests
Goals, Attention, and (Un)Consciousness
Adult Age Differences in Dual Information Processes
Intuition
Warmer Individuals Get More Help
Retracted
Two Kinds of Process or Two Kinds of Processing? Disambiguating Dual-Process Theories
Consciousness, Causation, and Confusion
How does unconscious processing promote creative problem-solving? An examination using priming methods
Unconscious thoughts tend to categorize information based on thematic relations
Create in the Snack Mountain
The effect of rational-experiential thinking style on stock-flow performance
Do people choose happiness? Anticipated happiness affects both intuitive and deliberative decision-making
Unconscious Work Doesn’t Work
Strong phenomenal intentionality theory and unconscious phenomenality
How a crisis mindset activates intuitive decision process
Quantifying the roles of conscious and unconscious processing in insight-related memory effectiveness within standard and creative advertising
Countering Political Polarization Through Conscious and Unconscious Integrative Complexity
The Semantic Integration of Multiple Unconscious Stimuli in Creative Problem‐Solving
Integrating B.F. Skinner’s Writings with Some Current Research in Human Creativity
Similar or dissimilar? Influence of similarity between distraction tasks and target tasks on unconscious thought
Revisiting the neuroscientific evidence for unconscious perception - the implications of affordances theory and biased competition
Metaphor and the automatic mind
Consistency Over Flattery
Mindful Attention Prevents Mindless Impulses
Is It Better to Think Unconsciously or to Trust Your First Impression
Technological alienation and how networked digitality constitutes a map for understanding the complexity of individual and collective consciousness
Beyond Equal Processing
A battle in the hive against the Queen Bee
Incubation and Activation of the Semantic Network
Architecture of the mind and libertarian paternalism
How reason confronts experience
Organizing by Projective Hearing
The Origins of Commitment
Hierarchy, Symmetry and Scale in Mathematics and Bi-Logic in Psychoanalysis, with Consequences
Putting the Image Back Into the Frame
Touch matters
Unconscious linguistic referents to race
A neurocognitive framework of attention and creativity
Moving Onwards
Development and Validation of a New Measure of Intuition
Early Positive Information Impacts Final Evaluations
Selection of Decision Strategies After Conscious and Unconscious Thought
The Heart and the Head
To deliberate or not to deliberate
Learning to Decide with and without Reasoning
Feeling It/Not Feeling It
Collective pronouns, collective health actions
The adaptive unconscious in psychoanalysis
Exploring the unique roles of trust and play in private creativity
The speed of metacognition
The Endogenous Feedback Network
Perceiving a story outside of conscious awareness
Cognitive style modulates conscious but not unconscious thought
Evidence that logical reasoning depends on conscious processing
Attribute preference and selection in multi-attribute decision making
Conscious and unconscious thought in artificial grammar learning
Crossing the invisible line
Bias or equality? Unconscious thought equally integrates temporally scattered information
Unconscious processing modulates creative problem solving
Multivariate pattern analysis of event-related potentials predicts the subjective relevance of everyday objects
The effect of introspection on judgment and decision making is dependent on the quality of conscious thinking
Thinking in Black and White
Unconscious versus conscious thought in creative science problem finding
Lost in dissociation
The tendency of unconscious thought toward global processing style
Capitalising on intuition and reflection
A Model of Our Contemplative Nature
Matter of transformation
How to Do Things with Information Online. A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating Social Networking Platforms as Epistemic Environments
Qualitative research in sport and exercise psychology
Conflict, decision, and dissonance.
The Process of Education
Suppression as a Stereotype Control Strategy
Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the Advantageous Strategy
Introspecting about Reasons can Reduce Post-Choice Satisfaction
Thoughts beyond words
On Making the Right Choice
Person memory and judgment.
Multiple Processes by which Attitudes Guide Behavior
Confirmation, disconfirmation, and information in hypothesis testing.
The Unconscious Consumer
Ironic processes of mental control.
Judgment under Uncertainty
A perspective on judgment and choice
Where creativity resides
A Continuum of Impression Formation, from Category-Based to Individuating Processes
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
The New Unconscious
Reflective and Impulsive Determinants of Social Behavior
Memory for expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent information
Memory for stereotype‐consistent and stereotype‐inconsistent information as a function of processing pace
Processing load and memory for stereotype‐based information
Think Different
On the benefits of thinking unconsciously
The Knife That Cuts Both Ways
Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious
Nonconscious acquisition of information
A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice
The trouble of thinking
Out of mind but back in sight
Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction
Thinking too much
Preconscious control of stereotype activation through chronic egalitarian goals
Stereotypic biases in social decision making and memory
Prejudice with and without compunction
Reasoning and the weighting of attributes in attitude judgments
Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion
Feeling and thinking
Stereotypes and prejudice
Biased predecision processing
Intuition
The empirical case for two systems of reasoning
| Unique citing works | 142 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,76 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 123 |