People lack reliable introspective access to the causes of their own behavior

Evidence

Introspective access. Nisbett and Wilson (1977a) argued persuasively that psychology’s reliance on verbal self-report measures was unwarranted in the face of evidence showing the poverty of introspective access to the causes of behavior. Wegner and Vallacher (1977, 1981) also drew attention to influences on social behavior that escape introspective notice. They presented an “implicit psychology,” drawing on and extending Bruner and Tagiuri’s (1954) concept of implicit personality theory. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition, 41

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the group-defense mechanisms of the MOC: the claim that motives behind responses (including defensive ones) are introspectively hidden grounds the need for implicit rather than self-report measures. — connects to: Individuals systematically deny that status principles explain their own behavior. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 44; People follow adaptive taboos without any shared causal understanding of why — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 332; People self-sabotage to preserve excuses that protect self-esteem — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 247 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Humans lack built-in detectors for their own compartmentalized thinking #expands (0.88)
• People self-sabotage to preserve excuses that protect self-esteem #expands (0.80) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 247