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A History of Implicit Social Cognition 1 A History of Implicit Social Cognition 1 A History of Implicit Social Cognition: Where Is It Coming From? Where Is It Now? Where Is It Going? B. Keith Payne University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Bertram Gawronski The University of Western Ontario Within the space of two decades, virtually every In this introduction, we aim to provide a context for intellectual question in social psychology, and many the chapters that follow by highlighting some of the outside of it, has been shaped by the theories and themes that keep surfacing in the field, tracing them to methods of implicit social cognition. Many of those their historical roots, and identifying emerging themes questions are pondered in this volume, involving the role that may guide future research. We hope that our of automatic/implicit/unconscious processes in attitudes historical synopsis will not only provide an orientation (Petty & Briñol, Chapter 18), social judgment and for the in-depth discussions of particular topics in the decision-making (Bodenhausen & Todd, Chapter 15), following chapters, but also circumscribe the goal pursuit (Ferguson & Porter, Chapter 17), prejudice characteristics that define implicit social cognition as a and stereotyping (Amodio & Mendoza, Chapter 19; particular way of studying, understanding, and Trawalter & Shapiro, Chapter 20), self-concepts and self- explaining human behavior. In addition, we hope that our esteem (Schnabel & Asendorpf, Chapter 22; Zeigler-Hill introduction helps illuminate the historical roots of & Jordan, Chapter 21), social-cognitive development previous and ongoing debates, which seems valuable for (Olson & Dunham, Chapter 13), romantic relationships critical appraisals of theoretical interpretations in (Baldwin, Lydon, McClure, & Etchison, Chapter 23), implicit social cognition. and social justice (Payne & Cameron, Chapter 24). Where Is It Coming From? Expanding beyond the traditional boundaries of social A history of implicit social cognition could easily psychology, the basic ideas of implicit social cognition enough start with Freud and the psychoanalytic have also had an impact in many applied areas, including unconscious; or with Augustine and Aquinas who had a health psychology (Wiers et al., Chapter 25), clinical lot to say about the limits of introspection in knowing psychology (Teachman, Cody, & Clerkin, Chapter 26), thyself; or even with Plato and Aristotle who commented forensic psychology (Snowden & Gray, Chapter 27), extensively on consciousness and intentional behavior. consumer psychology (Perkins & Forehand, Chapter 28), Our aim in this introduction is more modest. It is to take and political psychology (Nosek, Graham, & Hawkins, a selective look at roughly the last two decades in which Chapter 29). implicit social cognition has comprised a recognizable In every topic of study, implicit social cognition is enterprise in its own right, establishing itself as one of concerned with automatic/implicit/unconscious processes the most influential approaches in social psychology. underlying judgments and social behavior. An This process began as researchers adapted ideas and indispensable part of this endeavor is the use of a new methods from cognitive psychology to answer social class of indirect measurement procedures such as the psychological questions. As we shall see, many of the Implicit Association Test (IAT, Greenwald, McGhee, & lively debates in implicit social cognition can be traced Schwartz, 1998) and different kinds of sequential to which particular tradition of cognitive psychology was priming tasks (e.g., Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, & Williams, appropriated. 1995; Payne, Cheng, Govorun, & Stewart, 2005; Two roots of implicit social cognition Wittenbrink, Judd, & Park, 1997), which play a crucial Papers on implicit social cognition include a lot of role in the chapters of this book. Thumbing through its hyphens and slashes in their key terms. Phrases like pages makes it clear how implicit social cognition has automatic/implicit/unconscious processing and brought new insights, and also new controversies, controlled/explicit/conscious processing abound. Aside wherever it has led. In fact, implicit social cognition has from being less than precise, such phrases reveal a grown at such an incredible rate over the past years that tension at the heart of the discipline. One theme that it seems almost impossible to keep track of the rapidly recurs in the field, and in this book, is an uneasy progressing developments in this area. The purpose of relationship between notions of automaticity and this handbook is to provide a comprehensive overview of unconsciousness. When these terms are thrown together, the current state of the field, including key findings, they sometimes leave readers with only a vague idea of current directions, and emerging themes in the area of what is being studied. But a sharper picture emerges implicit social cognition. when we take a step back and distinguish two intellectual traditions that gave rise to separate terminologies. One To appear in: B. Gawronski, & B. K. Payne (Eds.), Handbook of implicit social cognition: Measurement, theory, and applications. New York: Guilford Press. A History of Implicit Social Cognition 2 tradition is found in research on selective attention. The Racial attitudes had always presented challenges for other is found in research on implicit memory. researchers because self-presentation motives meant Roots of automatic and controlled processing in many subjects would not honestly report their attitudes. attention research. Some of the seminal articles that can Techniques such as the bogus pipeline showed that be subsumed under the umbrella term implicit social subjects typically hold more prejudiced attitudes than cognition emphasize the differences between automatic they are willing to report under ordinary circumstances and controlled cognition, with little mention of the (Jones & Sigall, 1971). But such deceptive procedures unconscious. These papers took as their point of are ethically controversial and practically cumbersome. departure the cognitive psychology work of Shiffrin and Priming methods seemed to offer the potential for a bona Schneider (1977) and Posner and Snyder (1975), among fide pipeline to reach respondents’ true attitudes (Fazio et others. This work developed from a tradition of research al., 1995). on selective attention and short term memory (e.g., The challenge of racial attitudes was taken up by both Broadbent, 1971; Treisman, 1969). The key idea in these Devine (1989) and Fazio et al. (1995). Both studies were articles was that information processing could be divided informed by cognitive theories of automatic and into controlled and automatic modes. Controlled controlled processing (Posner & Snyder, 1975; Shiffrin processing was defined as demanding attention, limited & Schneider, 1977) and priming techniques (Neely, in capacity, and voluntarily initiated and altered. 1977); both had little to say about conscious awareness Automatic processing was defined as needing little of attitudes; and both emphasized the idea that well- attention, unlimited in capacity, and difficult to suppress learned associations should be activated automatically, voluntarily. These criteria will of course sound very but weakly learned associations require cognitive effort familiar to social cognition researchers, as they are the to be retrieved. For Fazio, the implication was that forerunners, but not identical to, Bargh’s (1994) “four individuals with weak or neutral racial attitudes simply horsemen” of automaticity (awareness, efficiency, would not show any priming effects, whereas those with intention, control). Although in Bargh’s scheme strongly negative attitudes or strongly positive attitudes conscious awareness is the first feature, the earlier should show corresponding priming effects. But for cognitive theories hardly mentioned consciousness. Devine the important distinction was between the Fazio and colleagues’ seminal work showing that knowledge of a social stereotype versus the personal attitudes can be automatically activated built on these endorsement of the stereotype. Because everyone in a cognitive theories of automatic and controlled processing culture learns stereotypes in the same way they learn (Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986; see also about other categories, such as birds or foods, knowledge Dovodio, Evans, & Tyler, 1986; Gaertner & of stereotypes should be well-learned for virtually McLaughlin, 1983). Here too, there was little concern everyone. Stereotypes should therefore be automatically with consciousness. The term conscious appears only activated for everyone. Personally endorsed beliefs, on once in Fazio et al.’s (1986) paper and the term aware the other hand, should vary with one’s values and appears twice. For Fazio et al., “the key feature of such motivations. Thus, in Devine’s approach, inescapable automatic activation, then, is inescapability” (p. 229). In stereotype activation was universal; it was endorsed the work of Shiffrin and Schneider (1977) and Posner beliefs that distinguished prejudiced from unprejudiced and Snyder (1975) the degree of learning was critically individuals. important for automaticity. Well-learned items were Here we see a second theme that reappears in debates detected or retrieved from memory automatically, throughout implicit social cognition research: Are the whereas poorly learned items required cognitive effort to results of cognitive measurements—such as the
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