The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
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
Citations
Cites
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1124 · Cited by 28,810
Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1975) · Utility, Probability, and Human Decision Making · doi:10.1007/978-94-010-1834-0_8 · Cited by 22,650
Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9 · Cited by 9,984 · cited 2×
“The tools that people employ when asked to make judgments about causality are analogous to the "representativeness heuristic" described by Tversky and Kahneman (1973, 1974; Kahneman & Tversky, 1973).”
MethodPersonal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy
Reid, L. A., & Polanyi, M. (1959) · British Journal of Educational Studies · doi:10.2307/3119338 · Cited by 7,880
Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure
Zajonc, R. B. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025848 · Cited by 6,745
Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state.
Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0046234 · Cited by 6,223
On the psychology of prediction.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1973) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0034747 · Cited by 6,202
Bem, D. J. (1972) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60024-6 · Cited by 5,241
Lane, S. D. (2016) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315506173-8 · Cited by 4,707
The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process
Ross, L. (1977) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60357-3 · Cited by 4,170
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,001–1,100 of 1,133
Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey
Hall, L., Johansson, P., & Strandberg, T. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045457 · Cited by 192
“In short, asking people to introspect and estimate their own propensity for change often assumes more self-awareness than is warranted from the evidence [4,15–18].”
BackgroundMeditation experience predicts introspective accuracy.
Fox, K. C. R., Zakarauskas, P., Dixon, M., Ellamil, M., Thompson, E., & Christoff, K. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045370 · Cited by 190
“Not long ago, Nisbett and Wilson [2] argued that ‘‘the accuracy of subjective reports is so poor as to suggest than any introspective access that may exist is not sufficient to produce generally correct or reliable reports’’ (p. 233).”
BackgroundRace in the Courtroom: Perceptions of Guilt and Dispositional Attributions
Sommers, S. R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2000) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167200263005 · Cited by 283
“6. A direct measure would have asked, “To what extent did racial issues influence your perceptions of the trial?” But we believed that participants would be unable and/or unwilling to answer this question accurately (see Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ).”
BackgroundThe altered state of hypnosis: Changes in the theoretical landscape.
Kirsch, I., & Lynn, S. J. (1995) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.50.10.846 · Cited by 254
“" Similarly, according to Perry (1992), in applying the term altered state of consciousness, "all that is meant is that in hypnosis, many individuals report experiencing subjective alterations" (p.”
BackgroundEISENBERGER, N. I., LIEBERMAN, M. D., & SATPUTE, A. B. (2005) · Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/cabn.5.2.169 · Cited by 184
“Thus, although individuals may have introspective access to their final affective state, they may not be aware of the processes that led to that state ( Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; E. R. Smith & Miller, 1978).”
BackgroundMethodPatterns of Moral Judgment Derive From Nonmoral Psychological Representations
Cushman, F., & Young, L. (2011) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01167.x · Cited by 179
“Waldmann and Dieterich (2007) point out that harm as a means typically involves causal intervention on the harmed victim, whereas harm as a side-effect typically involves causal intervention on the harming agent.”
BackgroundTHEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOR THERAPY FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Brewin, C. R. (1996) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.33 · Cited by 184
Improving the academic performance of college freshmen: Attribution therapy revisited.
Wilson, T. D., & Linville, P. W. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.2.367 · Cited by 290
Self-citationThe Child is a Theoretician, Not an Inductivist*
KARMILOFF‐SMITH, A. (1988) · Mind & Language · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0017.1988.tb00142.x · Cited by 179
Sources of accuracy in the empathic accuracy paradigm
Hall, J. A., & Schmid Mast, M. (2007) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.438 · Cited by 171
“These self-reports may combine accurate recollections along with reconstructions or new inferences based on watching and listening to themselves (Bem, 1967; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundDunlop, W. L., & Tracy, J. L. (2013) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0031185 · Cited by 166
Epistemic beliefs’ role in promoting misperceptions and conspiracist ideation
Garrett, R. K., & Weeks, B. E. (2017) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0184733 · Cited by 167
The brain’s functional network architecture reveals human motives
Hein, G., Morishima, Y., Leiberg, S., Sul, S., & Fehr, E. (2016) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aac7992 · Cited by 165
Surrogate Decision Makers' Interpretation of Prognostic Information: A Mixed-Methods Study
Zier, L. S., Sottile, P. D., Hong, S. Y., Weissfield, L. A., & White, D. B. (2012) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-156-5-201203060-00008 · Cited by 171
Wilson, T. D. (2009) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01143.x · Cited by 163
“…predictions about one’s future self) Social psychology Accuracy of recall of one’s past attitudes and/or abilities (Ross, 1989) Limits of introspection (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) Affective forecasting (Gilbert & Wilson, 2007; Wilson & Gilbert, 2003) Accuracy of recall of past affective reactions…”
BackgroundSelf-citationAdriaanse, M. A., Oettingen, G., Gollwitzer, P. M., Hennes, E. P., de Ridder, D. T. D., & de Wit, J. B. F. (2010) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.730 · Cited by 247
Sleep imaging and the neuro-psychological assessment of dreams
Schwartz, S., & Maquet, P. (2002) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01818-0 · Cited by 218
Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias.
Ito, T. A., Friedman, N. P., Bartholow, B. D., Correll, J., Loersch, C., Altamirano, L. J., & Miyake, A. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0038557 · Cited by 159
“…associations that people were increasingly unwilling (or unable) to report, thereby circumventing well documented limitations inthe willingness and ability to accurately introspect on the cognitive processes that produce overt behaviors (Kunda, 1990; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Zajonc, 1980).”
BackgroundAt a Loss From Words: Verbal Overshadowing of Perceptual Memories
Schooler, J. W., Fiore, S. M., & Brandimonte, M. A. (1997) · Psychology of Learning and Motivation · doi:10.1016/s0079-7421(08)60505-8 · Cited by 157
Jonas, K., Broemer, P., & Diehl, M. (2000) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/14792779943000125 · Cited by 234
Methodological issues in questionnaire-based research on student learning in higher education.
Richardson, J. T. E. (2004) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-004-0004-z · Cited by 154
The Bias That Divides Us: The Science and Politics of Myside Thinking
Stanovich, K. E. (2021) · doi:10.7551/mitpress/13367.001.0001 · Cited by 152
When asking the question changes the ultimate answer: Metamemory judgments change memory
Mitchum, A. L., Kelley, C. M., & Fox, M. C. (2016) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/a0039923 · Cited by 148
Process Tracing Methods in Decision Support Systems Research: Exploring the Black Box
Todd, P., & Benbasat, I. (1987) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/248979 · Cited by 224
Changing Behavior Using the Model of Action Phases
Keller, L., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2020) · The Handbook of Behavior Change · doi:10.1017/9781108677318.006 · Cited by 147
Dyson, J., Lawton, R., Jackson, C., & Cheater, F. (2011) · Journal of Infection Prevention · doi:10.1177/1757177410384300 · Cited by 142
Stereotype threat in men on a test of social sensitivity
Koenig, A. M., & Eagly, A. H. (2005) · Sex Roles · doi:10.1007/s11199-005-3714-x · Cited by 141
“Because self-reports of strategies have limitations ( Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ), future researchers should examine other measures of automatic processes in decoding nonverbal cues, such as reaction times, to substantiate these findings.”
BackgroundAwareness of single and multiple emotions in high-functioning children with autism
Rieffe, C., Meerum Terwogt, M., & Kotronopoulou, K. (2007) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0171-5 · Cited by 137
“For example, primary emotional reactions are caused by involuntary processes, which can only be understood by post hoc analyses that include more than just the objective situation ( Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ).”
BackgroundFour Principles of Explainable Artificial Intelligence
Phillips, P. J., Hahn, C. A., Fontana, P. C., Broniatowski, D. A., & Przybocki, M. A. (2020) · doi:10.6028/nist.ir.8312-draft · Cited by 136
“For the type of introspection related to explanation accuracy, it is well-documented that although people often report their reasoning for decisions, this does not reliably reflect accurate or meaningful introspection [93, 102, 143].”
BackgroundSocial influence research in counseling: A review and critique.
Heppner, P. P., & Claiborn, C. D. (1989) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-0167.36.3.365 · Cited by 136
Control theory and psychopathology: an integrative approach.
Mansell, W. (2005) · Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice · doi:10.1348/147608304x21400 · Cited by 133
Manicavasagar, V., Horswood, D., Burckhardt, R., Lum, A., Hadzi-Pavlovic, D., & Parker, G. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3176 · Cited by 131
The Rule of Law and Automation of Government Decision‐Making
Zalnieriute, M., Moses, L. B., & Williams, G. (2019) · The Modern Law Review · doi:10.1111/1468-2230.12412 · Cited by 140
Minimizing the black box problem to enhance the validity of theories about instructional effects.
Winne, P. H. (1982) · Instructional Science · doi:10.1007/bf00120978 · Cited by 123
Simpson, W. K., & Pychyl, T. A. (2009) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.013 · Cited by 122
Lepper, M. R., Sagotsky, G., Dafoe, J. L., & Greene, D. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.51 · Cited by 120
Behavioral Theory in a Diverse Society: Like a Compass on Mars
Pasick, R. J., Burke, N. J., Barker, J. C., Joseph, G., Bird, J. A., Otero-Sabogal, R., Tuason, N., Stewart, S. L., Rakowski, W., Clark, M. A., et al. (2009) · Health Education & Behavior · doi:10.1177/1090198109338917 · Cited by 119
“These processes most often go on outside of conscious awareness, such that people cannot fully comprehend or explain why they do what they do (Nisbett & Wilson, 2005).”
BackgroundLindgren, K. P., Neighbors, C., Gasser, M. L., Ramirez, J. J., & Cvencek, D. (2017) · The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse · doi:10.1080/00952990.2016.1229324 · Cited by 120
“tion, opportunity, ability, and/or awareness (25), and that individuals often and unwittingly tell more than they actually know about themselves (26).”
The biological function of consciousness
Earl, B. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00697 · Cited by 117
“Nisbett and Wilson (1977) were the first to provide evidence, based on a review of published experimental work, that we never really know why we do the things we do, why we choose the things we choose, or why we prefer the things we prefer.”
BackgroundInfluentialMotivations in personalisation behaviour
Oulasvirta, A., & Blom, J. (2008) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2007.06.002 · Cited by 117
“The apparent shortcoming of this method is that introspective reports of determinants of behaviour are not always accurate (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; cf. Hurlburt and Heavey, 2001).”
MethodTesting vs. believing hypotheses: magical ideation in the judgement of contingencies
Brugger, P., & Graves, R. E. (1997) · Cognitive Neuropsychiatry · doi:10.1080/135468097396270 · Cited by 117
Glenn, C. R., Cha, C. B., Kleiman, E. M., & Nock, M. K. (2017) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702616686854 · Cited by 113
“Self-reports of suicide risk may be limited by individuals’ motivation to hide or conceal their suicidal plans or intent (Busch et al., 2003; Qin & Nordentoft, 2005) and generally poor ability to report on the processes underlying their behavior (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundExperimental Existential Psychology: Coping With the Facts of Life
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Koole, S., & Solomon, S. (2010) · Handbook of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001020 · Cited by 116
"Social" Cognition and Social Cognition: From the Subjective to the Intersubjective
Ickes, W., & Gonzalez, R. (1994) · Small Group Research · doi:10.1177/1046496494252008 · Cited by 115
Routledge, C., & Arndt, J. (2008) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.442 · Cited by 114
Neal, T. M. S., & Brodsky, S. L. (2016) · Psychology, Public Policy, and Law · doi:10.1037/law0000077 · Cited by 114
Attention to action and awareness of other minds
Frith, C. (2002) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/s1053-8100(02)00022-3 · Cited by 110
“Indeed it has been argued that we are never conscious of cognitive processes, but only of the results of those processes (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundSocial rewards: From basic social building blocks to complex social behavior
Tamir, D. I., & Hughes, B. L. (2018) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691618776263 · Cited by 109
“Proximal signals that drive social behavior People do not engage in most social behaviors mindful of their social goals or their adaptive success (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Pronin, Lin, & Ross, 2002).”
BackgroundOverconfidence as dissonance reduction
Blanton, H., Pelham, B. W., DeHart, T., & Carvallo, M. (2001) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1006/jesp.2000.1458 · Cited by 106
Does Explainable Artificial Intelligence Improve Human Decision-Making?
Alufaisan, Y., Marusich, L. R., Bakdash, J. Z., Zhou, Y., & Kantarcioglu, M. (2021) · Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.1609/aaai.v35i8.16819 · Cited by 106
Human Cognition Through the Lens of Social Engineering Cyberattacks
Montañez, R., Golob, E., & Xu, S. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01755 · Cited by 106
“It is known that most of the brain’s information processing is sealed-off from conscious awareness [Nisbett and Wilson, 1977], some permanently while other information could be consciously appreciated, but may not be conscious at a given moment.”
BackgroundFirst-ballot votes, predeliberation dispositions, and final verdicts in jury trials.
Sandys, M., & Dillehay, R. C. (1995) · Law and Human Behavior · doi:10.1007/bf01499324 · Cited by 103
Classification and Measurement of Character Strengths: Implications for Practice
Peterson, C., & Park, N. (2004) · Positive Psychology in Practice · doi:10.1002/9780470939338.ch27 · Cited by 101
Clever hands: Uncontrolled intelligence in facilitated communication.
Wegner, D. M., Fuller, V. A., & Sparrow, B. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.5 · Cited by 99
“Rather, the determination of authorship is an add-on, a judgment reached through the perception of self and situation rather than through some privileged understanding that arises from the conscious causation of the action (cf. Bem, 1972; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundApproach and Avoidance Tendencies in Spider Fearful Children: The Approach-Avoidance Task
Klein, A. M., Becker, E. S., & Rinck, M. (2011) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-010-9402-7 · Cited by 97
“Keywords Children Spider fear Approach and avoidance Behavior Cognitive biases”
BackgroundZulkiply, N., & Burt, J. S. (2013) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/s13421-012-0238-9 · Cited by 92
Thinking forensics: Cognitive science for forensic practitioners
Edmond, G., Towler, A., Growns, B., Ribeiro, G., Found, B., White, D., Ballantyne, K., Searston, R. A., Thompson, M. B., Tangen, J. M., et al. (2017) · Science & Justice · doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2016.11.005 · Cited by 95
Lin-Greenberg, E. (2021) · Foreign Policy Analysis · doi:10.1093/fpa/orab009 · Cited by 91
Turpin, M., Michael, J., Perez, E., & Bowman, S. R. (2023) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2305.04388 · Cited by 262
“…human-written explanations, these explanations are not only known to be incomplete, often omitting crucial parts of the causal chain for a particular event (Lombrozo, 2006; Hilton, 2017), but they can also often be unfaithful accounts of individuals’ cognitive processes (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundIncreased use of safety-seeking behaviors in chronic back pain patients with high health anxiety
Tang, N. K. Y., Salkovskis, P. M., Poplavskaya, E., Wright, K. J., Hanna, M., & Hester, J. (2007) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2007.05.004 · Cited by 89
“This can be regarded as a disadvantage ( Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ) or a strength (Turk & Flor, 1987).”
BackgroundMeasurement of Depressive Rumination and Associated Constructs
Luminet, O. (2003) · Depressive Rumination · doi:10.1002/9780470713853.ch10 · Cited by 87
Fries, S., Dietz, F., & Schmid, S. (2008) · Contemporary Educational Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2007.10.001 · Cited by 83
The Attention Schema Theory: A Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness
Graziano, M. S. A. (2017) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2017.00060 · Cited by 79
“Another similar approach to consciousness might be called the “naïve theory” perspective (e.g., Gazzaniga, 1970; Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Dennett, 1991).”
BackgroundDoogan, S., & Thomas, G. V. (1992) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(92)90050-q · Cited by 80
“The true causes may have been overlooked because they were not accessible to consciousness, or simply less obvious or less memorable (see Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ).”
BackgroundThe Affect System: What Lurks below the Surface of Feelings?
Cacioppo, J. T., Larsen, J. T., Smith, N. K., & Berntson, G. G. (2004) · Feelings and Emotions · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511806582.014 · Cited by 80
Impulsive action: emotional impulses and their control
Frijda, N. H., Ridderinkhof, K. R., & Rietveld, E. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00518 · Cited by 79
“Such basic expressions are informationally and computationally cheap, and thus afforded as non-reflective actions.”
BackgroundLangdon, R., Jones, S. R., Connaughton, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2009) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291708003978 · Cited by 78
“First, there is a history of questioning the reliability and validity of data obtained from introspection (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundCharacteristics of worry in Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Hirsch, C. R., Mathews, A., Lequertier, B., Perman, G., & Hayes, S. (2013) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.03.004 · Cited by 72
Sauer, H. (2018) · doi:10.1017/9781108529181 · Cited by 72
Recovering from negative events by boosting implicit positive affect
Quirin, M., Bode, R. C., & Kuhl, J. (2011) · Cognition and Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2010.536418 · Cited by 72
“For self-activation, we used stimuli that were unlikely to activate everyday-life theories about the induction of emotional states to avoid demand effects and the use of “a priori theories” as described by Nisbett and Wilson ( 1977 )).”
MethodHow Awareness Changes the Relative Weights of Evidence During Human Decision-Making
de Lange, F. P., van Gaal, S., Lamme, V. A. F., & Dehaene, S. (2011) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001203 · Cited by 65
Inside the Mental Voting Booth: An Impression-Driven Process Model of Candidate Evaluation
Lodge, M., & Stroh, P. (1993) · Explorations in Political Psychology · doi:10.1215/9780822396697-011 · Cited by 66
Consciousness as a memory system.
Budson, A. E., Richman, K. A., & Kensinger, E. A. (2022) · Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology · doi:10.1097/wnn.0000000000000319 · Cited by 66
Executive Function Deficits in Daily Life Prospectively Predict Increases in Depressive Symptoms
Letkiewicz, A. M., Miller, G. A., Crocker, L. D., Warren, S. L., Infantolino, Z. P., Mimnaugh, K. J., & Heller, W. (2014) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-014-9629-5 · Cited by 63
“Furthermore, they may be unable to infer cognitive processes such as EF (Nisbett and Wilson 1977).”
The Impact of Social Desirability Biases on Self-Report Among College Student and Problem Gamblers
Kuentzel, J. G., Henderson, M. J., & Melville, C. L. (2008) · Journal of Gambling Studies · doi:10.1007/s10899-008-9094-8 · Cited by 61
“This work is essential not only because of the correlations of IM and SDE with personality measures, but also because of the limitations inherent in self-report data ( Nisbett and Wilson 1977 ).”
BackgroundAly, M., & Yonelinas, A. P. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030231 · Cited by 58
“To determine whether subjective reports of perceiving are associated with conscious access to veridical information [22], another group of individuals completed the perceive/know”
BackgroundGawronski, B., Peters, K. R., & LeBel, E. P. (2008) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00085.x · Cited by 59
“In addition, some mental processes may be unconscious and therefore inaccessible to self-report (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundThe Cultural Evolution of Epistemic Practices: The Case of Divination
Hong, Z., & Henrich, J. (2021) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-021-09408-6 · Cited by 64
Zloteanu, M., Harvey, N., Tuckett, D., & Livan, G. (2018) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0209071 · Cited by 56
“they use it because others seem to use it [57] or because they are accustomed to relying on it [58]).”
BackgroundGlenn, C. R., Kleiman, E. M., Coppersmith, D. D. L., Santee, A. C., Esposito, E. C., Cha, C. B., Nock, M. K., & Auerbach, R. P. (2017) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12769 · Cited by 54
Generating Thinking-Aloud Protocols: Impact on the Narrative Writing of College Students
Ransdell, S. (1995) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1423102 · Cited by 51
The Subjective Experience of Craving: An Exploratory Analysis
Merikle, E. P. (1999) · Substance Use & Misuse · doi:10.3109/10826089909039399 · Cited by 48
Valuing different human lives.
Goodwin, G. P., & Landy, J. F. (2014) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/a0032796 · Cited by 48
Jacobs, C., & Silvanto, J. (2015) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.06.003 · Cited by 42
Naragon-Gainey, K., McMahon, T. P., & Park, J. (2018) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/amp0000371 · Cited by 42
“In recent years, there has been renewed attention to an enduring issue: limitations of self-report and the importance of connecting multiple levels of assessment in a single study (Haeffel & Howard, 2010; Kozak & Cuthbert, 2016; see also Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundIntroducing sit-stand desks increases classroom standing time among university students
Jerome, M., Janz, K. F., Baquero, B., & Carr, L. J. (2017) · Preventive Medicine Reports · doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2017.10.019 · Cited by 42
“Second, given previous research demonstrating the limitations of using self-report methods to study mental processes (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977), it is possible participants were not able to accurately report the reasons that they used the sit-stand desks during class.”
ResultForbidden Fruit: Inattention to Attractive Alternatives Provokes Implicit Relationship Reactance
DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Deckman, T., & Rouby, D. A. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0021749 · Cited by 41
Lemmens, L. H., Arntz, A., Peeters, F. P., Hollon, S. D., Roefs, A., & Huibers, M. J. (2011) · Trials · doi:10.1186/1745-6215-12-150 · Cited by 37
“Explicit measures depend on introspection, and a disadvantage is that it is known that people do not have access to all of the mechanisms that underlie their behaviour [50].”
BackgroundPerceptual Memory Representations and Memory Fragmentation as Predictors of Post-Trauma Symptoms
Buck, N., Kindt, M., van den Hout, M., Steens, L., & Linders, C. (2006) · Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy · doi:10.1017/s1352465806003468 · Cited by 36
“However, self-reports on cognitive processes are usually inaccurate and unreliable (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundCommon Sense, Intuition, and Theory in Personality and Social Psychology
Cacioppo, J. T. (2004) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0802_4 · Cited by 31
“Nisbett and Wilson's (1977) classic critique of theory and methods in personality and social psychology was made possible in part by selected failures in the field to distinguish between social psychological theories that model naive theories and social psychological theories that model underlying mechanisms.”
BackgroundKhatibi, A., Schrooten, M. G. S., Vancleef, L. M. G., & Vlaeyen, J. W. S. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01002 · Cited by 31
“One of the problems with the direct measures is their susceptibility to self-presentation biases (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Hirsch and Mathews, 1997).”
BackgroundInfluentialVirtual Reality for Criminologists: A Road Map
van Gelder, J.-L. (2023) · Crime and Justice · doi:10.1086/726691 · Cited by 31
“…showing that much human behavior, including criminal behavior, is driven by automatic cognitive processes that by de fi nition defy deliberate retrieval and, by implication, valid registration through interviews and survey instruments (Nisbett and Wilson 1977; Kahneman 2011; Nee et al. 2019).”
BackgroundA voice without a mouth no more: The neurobiology of language and consciousness
Skipper, J. I. (2022) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104772 · Cited by 31
Do We Know How Adversity Impacts Human Development?
Jayawickreme, E., Rivers, J., & Rauthmann, J. M. (2018) · Research in Human Development · doi:10.1080/15427609.2018.1495515 · Cited by 26
“Finally, and crucially, the PTGI, by asking participants to attribute the proportion of growth they believed they experienced to the trauma, is asking people to provide insight into their psychological processes that they cannot provide (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundBiased and biasing: the hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects
Dror, I. E. (2025) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs15040490 · Cited by 29
“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).”
Individuals with current suicidal ideation demonstrate implicit “fearlessness of death”
Hussey, I., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Booth, R. (2016) · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.11.003 · Cited by 29
Active inference as a computational framework for consciousness
Vilas, M. G., Auksztulewicz, R., & Melloni, L. (2022) · Review of Philosophy and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s13164-021-00579-w · Cited by 28
Examining explainable clinical decision support systems with think aloud protocols
Anjara, S. G., Janik, A., Dunford-Stenger, A., Mc Kenzie, K., Collazo-Lorduy, A., Torrente, M., Costabello, L., & Provencio, M. (2023) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0291443 · Cited by 28
The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment
Haidt, J. (2008) · Reasoning · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511814273.055 · Cited by 27
Mnemonic Context Effect in Two Cultures: Attention to Memory Representations?
Duffy, S., & Kitayama, S. (2007) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1080/03640210701703808 · Cited by 27
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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
