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Mental contamination and mental correction: Unwanted influences on judgments and evaluations.
Abstract
We define mental contamination as the process whereby a person has an unwanted response because of mental processing that is unconscious or uncontrollable. This type of bias is distinguishable from the failure to know or apply normative rules of inference and can be further divided into the unwanted consequences of automatic processing and source confusion, which is the confusion of 2 or more causes of a response. Mental contamination is difficult to avoid because it results from both fundamental properties of human cognition (e.g., a lack of awareness of mental processes) and faulty lay beliefs about the mind (e.g., incorrect theories about mental biases). People's lay beliefs determine the steps they take (or fail to take) to correct their judgments and thus are an important but neglected source of biased responses. Strategies for avoiding contamination, such as controlling one's exposure to biasing information, are discussed.
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“the extent to which people have introspective access to psychological processes has been disputed”
From Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects (2025) · cites this paper as Wilson & Brekke 1994
In the citing paper
“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 & Brekke, 1994
In the citing paper
“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 & Brekke, 1994
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“With motivated overriding, it is people's experience of A; (or the theory that they have an unwanted attitude; see Monteith, 1993; Wilson & Brekke, 1994) that triggers an attempt to override it, and this overriding requires effort and capacity (e.g., in the case of prejudice).”
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Relationship orientation as a moderator of the effects of social power.
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“We do not question that individuals may possess attitudes that, when met with their attention, they prefer to correct for or disavow in some way (Dunton & Fazio, 1997; Monteith, Ashburn-Nardo, Voils, & Czopp, 2002; Plant & Devine, 2001; Wegener & Petty, 1995; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
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“As such, we are seeing progress toward a better understanding of unconscious processes and motives (cf. Cramer, 2006; De Houwer, Teige-Mocigemba, Spruyt, & Moors, 2009; Epstein, 1994; Fazio & Olson, 2003; James & LeBreton, 2012; Kihlstrom, 1999; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
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Tice, D., Butler, J. L., Muraven, M., & Stillwell, A. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.6.1120 · Cited by 458
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“Not surprisingly , theories of debiasing share this focus (for reviews see Arkes, 1991; FischhoV, 1982; Larrick, 2004; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
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“In short, when a person's hedonic reactions are "contaminated" (Wilson & Brekke, 1994) by factors other than the mental representation of the future event, those feelings may be poor proxies for the person's later reactions to the event itself.”
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What's in a name: Implicit self-esteem and the automatic self.
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“Such a correction account supposes that people (a) possess some awareness of their bias for name letters and (b) have appropriate lay theories about the size and direction of their bias for name letters (Strack & Hannover, 1996; Wegener & Petty, 1997; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
BackgroundSocial Projection of Transient Drive States
Leaf Van Boven, A., & Loewenstein, G. F. (2003) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167203254597 · Cited by 419
“…such adjustments tend to be insufficient (Jacowitz & Kahneman, 1995; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974), and because evidence that adjustment is insufficient is seldom directly observable (Wilson & Brekke, 1994), people are likely to underestimate how differently they would feel in a different situation.”
BackgroundCognitive debiasing 2: impediments to and strategies for change
Croskerry, P., Singhal, G., & Mamede, S. (2013) · BMJ Quality & Safety · doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2012-001713 · Cited by 419
“5.”
BackgroundBIASES IN THE INTERPRETATION AND USE OF RESEARCH RESULTS
MacCoun, R. J. (1998) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.259 · Cited by 436
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“Wilson et al. (1996) found that offering an accuracy prize decreased subjects' ratings of the anchor's influence without actually decreasing the anchoring effect.”
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Beyond valence in the perception of likelihood: The role of emotion specificity.
DeSteno, D. A., Petty, R. E., Wegener, D. T., & Rucker, D. D. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.3.397 · Cited by 417
The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality
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Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious?
Gawronski, B., Hofmann, W., & Wilbur, C. J. (2006) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.007 · Cited by 430
Inhibitors and Enablers as Dual Factor Concepts in Technology Usage
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Losing Consciousness: Automatic Influences on Consumer Judgment, Behavior, and Motivation
Bargh, J. A. (2002) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/341577 · Cited by 569
“…all, almost all external, environmental influences on our behavior involve stimuli and messages that are in plain view, yet either we do not realize that the influence is taking place (Wilson and Brekke 1994) or we are overconfident as to our ability to control any such influences (Bargh 1999b).”
Kay, A. C., Wheeler, S. C., Bargh, J. A., & Ross, L. D. (2004) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2004.06.003 · Cited by 391
In search of realistic optimism: Meaning, knowledge, and warm fuzziness.
Schneider, S. L. (2001) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.250 · Cited by 388
Morewedge, C. K., Yoon, H., Scopelliti, I., Symborski, C., Korris, J. H., & Kassam, K. (2015) · Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1177/2372732215600886 · Cited by 430
“…the life span (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, 2007; Dhami, Schlottmann, & Waldmann, 2011; Peters & de Bruin, 2011), but people are generally unaware of the extent to which they are biased and have difficulty debiasing their decision making (Scopelliti et al., 2015; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
BackgroundReflective and Automatic Processes in the Initiation and Maintenance of Dietary Change
Rothman, A. J., Sheeran, P., & Wood, W. (2009) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s12160-009-9118-3 · Cited by 368
“Sheeran (2008, unpublished raw data) obtained evidence consistent with Wilson and Brekke's analysis in a longitudinal study of snack food consumption that used conscientiousness as an indicator of participants' motivation and ability to correct for the unwanted influence of a positive stereotype of the typical snack f…”
BackgroundKrueger, J. I., & Funder, D. C. (2004) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x04000081 · Cited by 374
“Following Dawes (1976), some favored the metaphor of the " cognitive miser " by emphasizing limited mental resources, reliance on irrelevant cues, and the difficulties of effortful correction (Wilson & Brekke 1994).”
Valuing thoughts, ignoring behavior: The introspection illusion as a source of the bias blind spot
Pronin, E., & Kugler, M. B. (2007) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.05.011 · Cited by 366
“bias. Biases typically operate nonconsciously, thereby leaving their inXuence hidden from introspection ( Wilson & Brekke, 1994; Wilson, Centerbar, & Brekke, 2002).”
BackgroundWhen less is more: Counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists.
Medvec, V. H., Madey, S. F., & Gilovich, T. D. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.69.4.603 · Cited by 526
Morris, M., Cooper, R. L., Ramesh, A., Tabatabai, M., Arcury, T. A., Shinn, M., Im, W., Juarez, P., & Matthews-Juarez, P. (2019) · BMC Medical Education · doi:10.1186/s12909-019-1727-3 · Cited by 363
Ecker, U. K. H., Lewandowsky, S., Swire‐Thompson, B., & Chang, D. (2011) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0065-1 · Cited by 386
“Wilson and Brekke (1994) argued that unintentional”
Oppenheimer, D. M. (2005) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.1178 · Cited by 368
“…to the judgement that is being made, people reduce their reliance on fluency as a cue; in fact, in an effort not to be influenced by the irrelevant source of fluency, they overcompensate and are biased in the opposite direction (see Wilson & Brekke, 1994 for a review of overcompensation effects).”
Neural Signals for the Detection of Unintentional Race Bias
Amodio, D. M., Harmon‐Jones, E., Devine, P. G., Curtin, J. J., Hartley, S. L., & Covert, A. E. (2004) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01502003.x · Cited by 352
“The demonstration that conflict-detection processes are activated in the face of race-biased tendencies at very early stages of response execution suggests an extension of extant models of prejudice control (e.g., Monteith, 1993) and mental correction (Wegener & Petty, 1997; Wilson & Brekke, 1994 ).”
BackgroundReducing Automatically Activated Racial Prejudice Through Implicit Evaluative Conditioning
Olson, M. A., & Fázio, R. H. (2006) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167205284004 · Cited by 367
“Given people’s inability to adequately detect and correct for bias ( Wilson & Brekke, 1994 ) or monitor their nonverbal behavior (e.g., Dovidio et al., 1997), automatic prejudices are pervasive influences in everyday life.”
BackgroundSelf-control and alcohol restraint: An initial application of the Self-Control Strength Model.
Muraven, M., Collins, R. L., & Neinhaus, K. (2002) · Psychology of Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1037//0893-164x.16.2.113 · Cited by 366
What's in a name: implicit self-esteem and the automatic self
Koole, S. L., Dijksterhuis, A., & van Knippenberg, A. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.4.669 · Cited by 424
Larrick, R. P. (2004) · Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making · doi:10.1002/9780470752937.ch16 · Cited by 328
Metadata
- Authors
- Wilson, T. D., & Brekke, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Virginia (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1994
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 117-142
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W2035370986
- Semantic Scholar
- 713d6a95d5409a9a7ffcd4ae4337078e4851ccf4
- Cited by
- 1,157
- References
- 171
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 45
- FWCI
- 12.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh041841-10)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH41841)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- mental contamination, judgment bias, automatic processing, source confusion, unconscious processes, metacognition
- MeSH terms
- Cognition, Humans, Judgment, Mental Processes
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