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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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“Nisbett and Wilson (1977) demonstrated such post hoc reasoning for causal explanations .”
BackgroundThinking backward: Some curable and incurable consequences of cognitive busyness.
Gilbert, D. T., & Osborne, R. E. (1989) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.940 · Cited by 336
“…perceivers' theories about their own capacity for inferential error may enable them to abrogate, at least in part, the error's ill effects (cf. Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ) For example, if perceivers realize that being busy distorts their perception of others, then they may be particularly…”
BackgroundConsumer Choice and Autonomy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
André, Q., Carmon, Z., Wertenbroch, K., Crum, A. J., Frank, D. H., Goldstein, W. M., Huber, J. C., Leaf Van Boven, A., Weber, B., & Yang, H. (2017) · Customer Needs and Solutions · doi:10.1007/s40547-017-0085-8 · Cited by 405
“They think about the processes that lead them to a particular choice in terms of deliberation and intentionality, see their own actions as internally driven and motivated [69], and come up with internally consistent reasons when the true drivers of choice are not immediately available to them [45].”
BackgroundThe role of automatic obesity stereotypes in real hiring discrimination.
Agerström, J., & Rooth, D.-O. (2011) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0021594 · Cited by 331
Direct Measurement of Situation Awareness: Validity and Use of SAGAT
Endsley, M. R. (2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315087924-9 · Cited by 336
Moral dumbfounding: when intuition finds no reason
Björklund, F., Haidt, J., & Murphy, S. (2000) · Lund University Publications (Lund University) · Cited by 334
Ziegert, J. C., & Hanges, P. J. (2005) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.3.553 · Cited by 334
“Another possible advantage is that individuals may not be able to adequately access their introspective processes (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
BackgroundUsers are individuals: individualizing user models
Rich, E. A. (1983) · International Journal of Man-Machine Studies · doi:10.1016/s0020-7373(83)80007-8 · Cited by 341
The Oxford Handbook of Free Will
(2011) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195399691.001.0001 · Cited by 333
Brief mindfulness training for negative affectivity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Schumer, M. C., Lindsay, E. K., & Creswell, J. D. (2018) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/ccp0000324 · Cited by 316
“Second, most outcomes were self-reported (except two that were performance-based), a method of data collection that is biased by many factors as it is difficult to introspect about higher-order cognitive processes (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).”
Bröder, A. (2000) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.5.1332 · Cited by 334
Scientific Explanation and the Sense of Understanding
Trout, J. D. (2002) · Philosophy of Science · doi:10.1086/341050 · Cited by 331
The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns
Grossmann, I., Weststrate, N. M., Ardelt, M., Brienza, J. P., Dong, M., Ferrari, M., Fournier, M. A., Hu, C. S., Nusbaum, H. C., & Vervaeke, J. (2020) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2020.1750917 · Cited by 330
“…paradigm was chiefly methodological, allowing researchers to use participants’ verbal reports as a proxy for the quality of their reflections (Baltes & Smith, 2008; Gl€uck, 2018; Grossmann, 2017b; but see Nisbett & Wilson, 1977, for examples when such think-aloud protocols may not be useful).”
BackgroundDiurnal variation in the positive affects
Clark, L. A., Watson, D., & Leeka, J. (1989) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/bf00995536 · Cited by 330
“However, while acknowledging the limitations of self-report (Kagan, 1988; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977 ), we do presume that language is largely effective in its communicative function in such circumstances; that subjects are more or less accurately relaying their experience of these affective, physical, and cognitive state…”
BackgroundThe Think-Aloud Controversy in Second Language Research
Bowles, M. A. (2010) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203856338 · Cited by 341
A review of clinical decision making: models and current research
Banning, M. (2007) · Journal of Clinical Nursing · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01791.x · Cited by 330
Does psi exist? Replicable evidence for an anomalous process of information transfer.
Bem, D. J., & Honorton, C. (1994) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.115.1.4 · Cited by 330
Prototype analysis of the concepts of love and commitment
Fehr, B. (2010) · cIRcle (University of British Columbia) · doi:10.14288/1.0097046 · Cited by 330
A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach: The DIT and Schema Theory
Rest, J. R., Narvaez, D. F., Bebeau, M. J., & Thoma, S. J. (1999) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1023/a:1022053215271 · Cited by 352
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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