Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 22 August 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5892, pp. 1100 - 1102
DOI: 10.1126/science.1160769
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Automatic Mental Associations Predict Future Choices of Undecided Decision-Makers

Silvia Galdi,1* Luciano Arcuri,1 Bertram Gawronski2

Common wisdom holds that choice decisions are based on conscious deliberations of the available information about choice options. On the basis of recent insights about unconscious influences on information processing, we tested whether automatic mental associations of undecided individuals bias future choices in a manner such that these choices reflect the evaluations implied by earlier automatic associations. With the use of a computer-based, speeded categorization task to assess automatic mental associations (i.e., associations that are activated unintentionally, difficult to control, and not necessarily endorsed at a conscious level) and self-report measures to assess consciously endorsed beliefs and choice preferences, automatic associations of undecided participants predicted changes in consciously reported beliefs and future choices over a period of 1 week. Conversely, for decided participants, consciously reported beliefs predicted changes in automatic associations and future choices over the same period. These results indicate that decision-makers sometimes have already made up their mind at an unconscious level, even when they consciously indicate that they are still undecided.

1 Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.
2 Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: silvia.galdi{at}unipd.it

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A neural basis for the effect of candidate appearance on election outcomes.
M. L. Spezio, A. Rangel, R. M. Alvarez, J. P. O'Doherty, K. Mattes, A. Todorov, H. Kim, and R. Adolphs (2008)
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 3, 344-352
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)