Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study aims to further investigate the Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT, Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006), namely whether individual differences account for differences in choice made after either deliberation (conscious thought, CT) or distraction (unconscious thought, UT). Also, subjective weighting was considered and choice options were constructed following individual preferences, hence avoiding choices biased by differences in preferences. The main effect was replicated with a big sample (N=120, CT: 50.8%, UT: 70.5% chose the best alternative), using four different dependent measures. The results show further that the main effect is driven by underperformance of women in the CT condition. Stereotype threat is discussed as a possible explanation