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Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes.
Abstract
Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Subjects are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes.
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In the citing paper
“they can also often be unfaithful accounts of individuals' cognitive processes (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977).”
From Language Models Don't Always Say What They Think: Unfaithful Explanations in Chain-of-Thought Prompting (2023) · cites this paper as Nisbett and Wilson, 1977
In the citing paper
“One often is not aware of why one loves, hates, likes, or dislikes (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Wilson, 2002).”
From Impulsive action: emotional impulses and their control (2014) · cites this paper as Nisbett and Wilson, 1977
In the citing paper
“In addition, adolescent samples may be likely to underreport mental health symptoms [48,49]”
From Feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based positive psychology program for youth mental health: Randomized controlled trial (2014) · cites this paper as [49]
In the citing paper
“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 Nisbett & Wilson 1977
In the citing paper
“It is also important to emphasize that many of these top-down influences occur automatically and without awareness (Kunda, 1990; Nickerson, 1998; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Wilson & Brekke, 1994).”
From Biased and biasing: the hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects (2025) · cites this paper as Nisbett & Wilson, 1977
In the citing paper
“they may be unable to infer cognitive processes such as EF (Nisbett and Wilson 1977)”
From Executive Function Deficits in Daily Life Prospectively Predict Increases in Depressive Symptoms (2014) · cites this paper as Nisbett and Wilson 1977
In the citing paper
“They may, nonetheless, prefer TRI due to social convention (i.e. they use it because others seem to use it [57] or because they are accustomed to relying on it [58]).”
From Digital Identity: The effect of trust and reputation information on user judgement in the Sharing Economy (2018) · cites this paper as [57]
In the citing paper
“Considerable experimental evidence indicates that some features of human emotion and motivation cannot actually be accessed well via introspection or described in subjective reports (Nisbett and Wilson, 1978; Wilson and Schooler, 1991; Schwarz, 1999; Dijksterhuis et al., 2006; Schooler and Mauss, 2010; Greenwald and Banaji, 2017; Torre and Lieberman, 2018).”
From Evolving Concepts of Emotion and Motivation (2018) · cites this paper as Nisbett and Wilson, 1978
In the citing paper
“The perceived transparency of human decision-making stems from a belief that introspection provides direct access into the psychological processes by which people make decisions 17 .”
From Understanding, explaining, and utilizing medical artificial intelligence (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“Because selfreports can diverge from underlying cognitive processes (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977), these analyses are interpreted as complementary indicators of monitoring correspondence rather than proof of a unitary metacognitive-dependence construct.”
From College students' metacognitive awareness of generative-AI reliance: an experimental study of decision confidence and attribution bias (2026) · cites this paper as Nisbett and Wilson, 1977
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“Traditional market research methods tend to be very subjective self‐reports incapable of capturing consumers' emotional preferences, and their verbal‐language‐based responses are often difficult to interpret accurately (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundThe Superego, the Ego, and the Id in Statistical Reasoning
Gigerenzer, G. (2002) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195153729.003.0013 · Cited by 207
Toward general principles of managerial fairness
Sheppard, B. H., & Lewicki, R. J. (1987) · Social Justice Research · doi:10.1007/bf01048014 · Cited by 204
Conditioned learning in alcohol dependence: implications for cue exposure treatment
Drummond, C., COOPER, T., & Glautier, S. (1990) · British Journal of Addiction · doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1990.tb01685.x · Cited by 209
Learning to use word processors
Mack, R. L., Lewis, C., & Carroll, J. M. (1983) · ACM Transactions on Information Systems · doi:10.1145/357436.357440 · Cited by 204
“Further discussion of the usefulness of thinking-aloud protocols, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, can be found in [11, 13, 19].”
BackgroundKwang, T., & Swann, W. B. (2010) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868310365876 · Cited by 323
A Constructionist Review of Morality and Emotions
Cameron, C. D., Lindquist, K. A., & Gray, K. J. (2015) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868314566683 · Cited by 220
“As decades of psychological research have demonstrated, intuitive experiences are poor guides to the structure of the mind (Barrett, 2009; Davies, 2009; James, 1890; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Roser & Gazzaniga, 2004; Ross & Ward, 1996; Wegner, 2003).”
BackgroundThush, C., & Wiers, R. W. H. J. (2006) · Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.09.011 · Cited by 203
CREATIVE HYPOTHESIS GENERATING IN PSYCHOLOGY: Some Useful Heuristics
McGuire, W. J. (1997) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.1 · Cited by 203
The Symptoms of Resource Scarcity
Nelson, L. D., & Morrison, E. L. (2005) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00798.x · Cited by 205
Implicit Learning and Acquisition of Music
Rohrmeier, M., & Rebuschat, P. (2012) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01223.x · Cited by 216
Visual Data in Organizational Research
Meyer, A. D. (1991) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.2.2.218 · Cited by 202
You don't know me, but I know you: The illusion of asymmetric insight.
Pronin, E., Kruger, J., Savtisky, K., & Ross, L. D. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.639 · Cited by 205
“It may reflect the limited value of introspection itself—at least when it comes to discerning the causes and implications of one's behavior ( Nisbett & Wilson, 1977b; see also, Gergen, 1987; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977a).”
BackgroundStarbuck, W. H. (2006) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288533.001.0001 · Cited by 260
A Process-Oriented View of Student Motivation and Cognition.
Pintrich, P. (1988) · New Directions for Institutional Research · doi:10.1002/ir.37019885707 · Cited by 255
The bodymind model: a platform for studying the mechanisms of change induced by art therapy
Czamanski-Cohen, J., & Weihs, K. L. (2016) · The Arts in Psychotherapy · doi:10.1016/j.aip.2016.08.006 · Cited by 209
Introspective physicalism as an approach to the science of consciousness
Jack, A. (2001) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(00)00128-1 · Cited by 198
“Firstly, the instructions for ‘think aloud’ protocols discourage subjects from providing elaborate interpretations of the mental states they report, thus helping to ameliorate the difficulties associated with rationalisation (Gazzaniga, 1985; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundAn investment model prediction of dating infidelity.
Drigotas, S. M., Safstrom, C. A., & Gentilia, T. (1999) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.509 · Cited by 296
Student perceptions of schooling
Weinstein, R. S. (1983) · The Elementary School Journal · doi:10.1086/461319 · Cited by 197
“…paradigm) suggest that participants in routine social situations regulate their social behavior in the form of "scripts" constructed on the basis of prior experience; hence, they do not engage in much conscious processing of social information (Langer 1978; Nisbett & Wilson 1977).”
BackgroundSelf-Regulation of Cognitive Inference and Decision Processes
Baumeister, R. F., & Newman, L. S. (1994) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167294201001 · Cited by 292
Microfoundations of Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility
Shea, C. T., & Hawn, O. V. (2019) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2014.0795 · Cited by 209
Metadata
- Authors
- Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D.
- ORCID
- Wilson, Timothy D.
- Venue
- Psychological Review
- Published
- 1977-05
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 231-259
- ISSN
- 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1471
- OpenAlex
- W2164558494
- Cited by
- 11,317
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 297 · 2025: 273 · 2024: 198 · 2023: 373 · 2022: 260 · 2021: 346 · 2020: 432 · 2019: 492 · 2018: 345 · 2017: 335 · 2016: 334 · 2015: 360 · 2014: 333 · 2013: 323 · 2012: 362
- FWCI
- 129.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Cognitive Science and Education Research
- Keywords
- self-reflection, introspective access, causal judgment, salience, higher-order cognition
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