[[Forming Habits]] --- article type: non-fiction genre: psychology status: ingested author: Bargh & Chartrand title: The Unbearable Automaticity of Being created: 2023-07-17 --- #note/sourcereview/article ## What is the thesis? “most of a person's everyday life is determined not by their conscious intentions and deliberate choices but by mental processes that are put into motion by features of the environment and that operate outside of conscious awareness and guidance” (Bargh and Chartrand, 1999, p. 462) ## Am I convinced and why? Habits dominate our daily existence, and [[path dependence]] limits our choice. Other ways our choice is limited is through [[Design thinking]] creating situations of [[boost]] and of [[Nudge]]. [[Nudge to allow choice and mold behavior]], is that linked to freedome? For me, the question isn't if we have free will, or if our lives are dominated by unconscious action, the question is the ratio. - “It is aprofoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle-they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments. (Whitehead, 1911)” (Bargh and Chartrand, 1999, p. 464) ## Summarize the argument - “contemporary psychology for the most part has moved away from doctrinaire either-or positions concerning the locus of control of psychological phenomena, to an acknowledgment that they are determined jointly by processes set into motion directly by one's environment and by processes instigated by acts of conscious choice and will.” (Bargh and Chartrand, 1999, p. 463) - “Given one's understandable desire to believe in free will and self-determination, it may be hard to bear that most of daily life is driven by automatic, nonconscious mental processes-but it appears impossible, from these findings, that conscious control could be up to the job.” (Bargh and Chartrand, 1999, p. 464) - Both internal and external influences move towards action "Thinking is for action"![[CleanShot 2023-07-17 at 06.48.35.jpg]] ## What is the other side of the argument? ## What else do I wonder about? ## Action ## When do I want to stumble across this? ## Source: Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). [The Unbearable Automaticity of Being](hook://file/TphY2pntA?p=c3RvcmFnZS9GSDQzSFlaVg==&n=08%2DBargh%5FAutomaticity%5FOCR%2Epdf). _American Psychologist_, _54_(7), 462–479. [https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.462](https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.462) ## References, Quotes, Ideas ```dataview table file.mtime.year + "-" + file.mtime.month + "-" + file.mtime.day as Modified from [[ ]] and !outgoing([[ ]]) sort file.mtime desc ```