The Stroop effect demonstrates how ingrained habits override conscious instructions.

Evidence

Participants invariably name the word rather than name the color of the text, and a lively discussion of why they failed to follow simple instructions despite their conscious desire to do so follows. People will quickly recognize that while stating the color of the test was not itself difficult, reading words has been so engrained that they followed their standard behavior despite the instructions. This often serves as a catalyst for participants’ willingness to think about the role that the unconscious may play in decisions and reactions related to race. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1361

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the Stroop Test as a concrete, experiential demonstration of implicit versus conscious control.
• CANDY: The color-word Stroop test is a familiar, easily tweetable demonstration of unconscious processing overriding intent.