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Cited by 160Social and Intergroup PsychologyDecision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsPsychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

Mental Contamination and the Debiasing Problem

Wilson, Timothy D., Centerbar, David B., Brekke, Nancy·2002·Heuristics and Biases
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511808098.012
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Abstract

People do not have access to or control over the recipe of their impressions, feelings, and attitudes. There exists a vast, adaptive unconscious that does much of the work of sizing up and evaluating the world (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977b; Wilson, 2001); people often know the final product with no awareness of exactly how it was formed. Consider Ms. Green, a partner in a prestigious law firm, who is interviewing candidates for the position of associate in her firm. When she interviews Mr. Jones, a young African-American attorney, she has an immediate negative impression, finding him to be arrogant and lacking the kind of brilliance she looks for in new associates. Ms. Green decides that her impression of Mr. Jones was accurate and at a meeting of the partners, argues against hiring him. She wonders, however, whether her negative evaluation was influenced by Mr. Jones' race. Ms. Green may have suffered from mental contamination, which Wilson and Brekke (1994) defined as unconscious or uncontrollable mental processing that results in unwanted judgments, emotions, or behavior. Her dilemma illustrates the difficulty of knowing whether one's responses are contaminated, and if so, how to correct them. In this chapter, we review and update the arguments made by Wilson and Brekke (1994) concerning mental contamination, and also address several questions about the ways in which people try to protect their minds from unwanted influences.

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  • The cognitive processes that engender psychological biases are thought to be nonconscious and inaccessible to introspection.

    “The cognitive processes that engender psychological biases are thought to be nonconscious and, as such, inaccessible to introspection (Wilson & Brekke, 1994; Wilson et al., 2002).”

    From Everyone I Don’t Like Is Biased: Affective Evaluations and the Bias Blind Spot (2026) · cites this paper as Wilson et al., 2002

  • The cognitive processes that produce many psychological biases are inaccessible to introspection.

    “Given that the cognitive processes that produce many psychological biases are inaccessible to introspection (Wilson & Brekke, 1994; Wilson et al., 2002)”

    From Everyone I Don’t Like Is Biased: Affective Evaluations and the Bias Blind Spot (2026) · cites this paper as Wilson et al., 2002

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Authors
Wilson, T. D., Centerbar, D. B., & Brekke, N.
Affiliations
  • University of Virginia (US)
  • Lake Forest College (US)
ORCID
Wilson, Timothy D.
Venue
Heuristics and Biases
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
2002-07-08
Pages
185-200
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511808098.012
OpenAlex
W1666093842
Cited by
160
References
99
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 8
FWCI
19.34
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 3620 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Keywords
mental contamination, bias mitigation, unconscious processes, implicit bias, racial bias in hiring, cognitive control, impression formation

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