The Unconscious Mind-Bargh 2008

Many psychologists consider the unconscious mind as a shadow of a "true" conscious mind, despite evidence showing it's not less adaptive, smart, commanding, deliberative, or action-oriented. Cognitive psychology defines unconscious as subliminal, creating a "conscious-centric" bias. Contemporary social cognition research has proven the unconscious possesses perceptual, evaluative, and motivational guidance systems. Action precedes reflection in phylogeny and ontogeny; unconscious mind operates before conscious thought. Modern society views the unconscious differently. How well can the mind generate meaning from unintentionally received stimuli? 1995 (Greenwald, Klinger, Schuh) Subliminal inputs are weak and low intensity, therefore they influence rudimentary brain processes. These studies conclude that the unconscious mind is "dumb" (Loftus & Klinger, 1992). Sociology approaches the unconscious differently. Mental processes, not inputs, have been emphasized traditionally (e.g., Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Researchers have researched how aware people are of their views, decisions, and actions for 30 years. This study implies the unconscious mind impacts higher mental processes, contrary to cognitive psychology (see review in Bargh, 2006). Freud's concept of the unconscious shapes how many people view "the unconscious," especially outside of psychology. Freud's concept of the unconscious as the fundamental influence on daily life is more explicit and complete than current cognitive or social psychology. Freud's paradigm was based on individual case studies of abnormal thought and conduct (Freud, 1925/1961, p. 31), not behavioral science. Cognitive and social psychology findings corroborate Freud's theory that unconscious mentation can affect judgements and behavior (see Westen, 1999). Undisputedly, Freud championed the unconscious mind. How strong and impactful the unconscious is compared to conscious information processing depends on how it's defined. Mental life was considered fully or largely conscious in science and philosophy (Descartes' cogito and John Locke's "mind first" worldview). The importance of conscious thought in how humans understand the mind is shown in the vocabulary we use to describe other activities (i.e., unconscious, preconscious, subconscious, nonconscious). Purposeful, regulated, serial (using finite processing resources), and aware (i.e., verbally reportable). Unconsciousness lacks unity. Due to the monolithic definition of a conscious process—if a process doesn't have all the qualities of a conscious process, it's not conscious—at least two different "not conscious" processes were studied over the course of the 20th century in largely independent research traditions that barely noticed the other's existence: the New Look research in perception involving the preconscious analysis of stimuli prior to the proprioceptive (or conscious) analysis; and the research on the (see the review in Bargh & Chartrand, 2000). In the New Look study, the person did not mean to participate and was ignorant; in the skill-acquisition study, the person did intend to participate and the process went without conscious oversight. Typing and driving (for the skilled typist and driver, respectively) are notable examples of the latter—both are efficient, yet intentional behaviors. Nobody types or drives accidentally. These challenges with the all-or-nothing divide of mental processes into conscious or unconscious have led to distinct "flavors" of the unconscious—operational definitions that lead to divergent conclusions regarding the unconscious' strength and scope. We disagree with associating the unconscious with subliminal processing. Artificial and stiff. Subliminal feelings are too weak to reach conscious awareness. Analyzing the unconscious in terms of subliminal impulses is like measuring a fish's intelligence based on its behavior out of water. Defined as subliminal information processing, the unconscious has been deemed unintelligent. How smart is the unconscious? (1992) Because unconscious was treated as subliminal—or how smart people are when reacting to stimuli they are unaware (e.g., Greenwald, 1992)—contributors and issue editors agreed that the unconscious is rather dumb because it only performs highly routinized activities and perceives little without consciousness (Loftus & Klinger, 1992). The unconscious is wiser than awareness, which can't catch subliminal messages. Unintentional concept activation and associative learning are possible, but not sophisticated reactions, input integration, or higher mental processes. Unconscious originally meant something different. Early 1800s use refers to hypnotically induced actions for which the hypnotized individual was oblivious (Goldsmith, 1934). Darwin (1859) compared "unconscious selection" in nature with the purposeful and deliberate selection used by farmers and animal breeders to produce better corn, fatter cows, and woollier sheep. Early hypnosis studies helped Freud uncover the unconscious (see Brill, 1938). He used the phrase for unintentional conduct and thought. "Freudian slips" and most cases in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life include unintentional conduct with an unknown source or reason. In all these cases, unconscious meant unplanned activity or procedure, and the lack of knowledge was of its effect or implications. Unconscious meant unplanned activities, not subconscious processing (as the technology needed to present such information did not yet exist). Psychologists have connected unconscious with unintentional since the 1980s. How aware are people of the causes behind their behavior? The response was "not very well" (see Wilson & Brekke, 1994), which was unexpected and contested at the time because many thought judgements and actions (higher mental processes) were consciously created and available to conscious awareness. If these methods were unconscious, they may not have been created. If so, how? This concept prompted social psychology study into priming and automaticity effects, which explored how higher mental processes like judgment and social behaviour may be triggered and function unconsciously. This study defined unconscious influences as a lack of knowledge of a triggering stimulus's implications (Bargh, 1992). This definition change is massive. Changing the operational meaning of the unconscious from processing information one is ignorant of to its affects or consequences reveals its strength and extent in everyday life. Defining the unconscious as the former makes it seem foolish (Loftus & Klinger, 1992), while the latter makes it seem sophisticated and flexible. This revised view of the unconscious is more evolutionary than cognitive psychology's "subliminal only" paradigm. Darwin and Freud saw the unconscious as unplanned behaviors, not stimuli unawareness. Dawkins (1976) saw intelligent designs in nature created by natural selection. Nature is the "blind watchmaker" since there is no deliberate directing hand (Dennett, 1991, 1995).

Bargh, J. A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The Unconscious Mind. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 3(1), 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.x