Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,

Social behavior is ordinarily treated as being under conscious (if not always thoughtful) control. Howmer, considerable evidence now supports the view that social behavior often operates in an implicit or unconscious fashion. The identifying feature of implicit cognition is that past experience influences judgment in a fashion not introspectively known by the actor. The present conclusionthat attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes have important implicit modes of operation-xtends both the construct validity and predictive usefulness of these major theoretical constructs of social psychology. Methodologically, this review calls for inmased use of indirect measures--which are imperative in studies of implicit cognition. The theorized ordinariness of implicit stereotyping is consistent with r e n t findings of discrimination by people who explicitly disavow prejudice. The finding that implicit cognitive effects arc often reduced by focusing judges' attention on their judgment task provides a basis for evaluating applications (such as affirmative action) aimed at reducing such unintended discrimination.