The Rationalizing Voter: Unconscious Thought in Political Information Processing

Abstract

We review and evaluate a growing literature in social and political psychology on the ubiquity of unconscious thought processes and present a theoretical model, called John Q. Public (JQP), which seeks to explain how citizens form and express their political beliefs, attitudes, and choices. Our most revolutionary claims are that people are generally unable to reliably report their political beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions; that unconscious thought underlies all political deliberation, introducing important systematic biases, but paradoxically also providing the capacity for rational action in the face of severe cognitive limitations; and that conscious deliberation is typically more rationalizing than rational.

Keywords: political psychology, public opinion, rationality, automaticity, political cognition, affect