Mindlessness or Mindfulness: A Partial Replication and Extension of Langer, Blank, and Chanowitz

Four studies examined whether verbal behavior is mindful (cognitive) or mindless (automatic). All used Langer, Blank, and Chanowitz's (1978) experimental paradigm. Experimenters approached subjects at copying machines and asked to use it first. Their requests varied in the amount and kind of information given. Study 1 found less compliance when experimenters gave a controllable reason (". . . because I don't want to wait") than an uncontrollable reason (". . . because I feel really sick"). In Studies 2 and 3, requests for controllable reasons elicited less compliance than requests used in the Langer et al. study. Neither study replicated Langer ct al.'s results. Furthermore, the controllable condition's lower compliance supports a cognitive approach to social interaction. In the fourth study subjects were given instructions intended to increase cognitive processing of the requests and the pattern of compliance indicated in-depth processing of the request. Results of the four studies provide evidence for cognitive processing rather than mindlessness in social interaction.