I have a critique of John Bargh’s latest work “Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do” featured in this month’s Psychologist magazine. You can read the review in print (or online here) but the magazine only accommodated 250 words, while my original draft was closer to 700. I’ll include the complete, unedited review at the end of this post.
John Bargh is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in social psychology, known for his innovative experiments that purportedly reveal the intricacies of our unconscious minds. His work has faced both direct and indirect criticism amidst the so-called replication crisis in psychology (example), which made me approach a comprehensive exploration of his ideas with curiosity and an eye on how he might address his detractors.
To be fully transparent: I’ve previously posited that Bargh’s interpretation of ‘unconscious’ is theoretically inconsistent, rather than just empirically dubious, so my initial expectations for his book are likely best described as ‘skeptical’. However, I did receive a complimentary copy, which certainly enhances my mood.
If brevity is your preference, I encourage you to check out The Psychologist for the concise review. For those willing to delve deeper into my thoughts (and Bargh’s work), continue reading…
Review of
Before you know it: The unconscious reasons we do what do
by John Bargh
Heinemann, 2017
Let’s start with the positives. John Bargh stands out as a prominent figure in social psychology, serving as an engaging and knowledgeable guide to the significance of our motivations, goals, habits, history, and environment in shaping our daily actions. His passion for the subject and history of conducting experiments with a bit more flair than typical psychology studies is evident throughout this book, as is his affection for his family, road adventures, and Led Zeppelin. In “Before you know it,” Bargh leads us through a series of compelling demonstrations illustrating how minor variations can significantly sway our behavior, often without our complete awareness of their significance. Examples include his well-known experiment where students tasked with unscrambling words that included primes of the concept “elderly” walked slower down the corridor afterward, and a study indicating that holding a hot beverage led individuals to rate a stranger more favorably. Alongside this insightful tour of social psychology experiments from someone with unparalleled insider knowledge, Bargh offers a narrative of human behavior that locates our social interactions within an understanding of cognition, neuroscience, and evolution. He argues that social psychology is not a standalone field but part of a broader, multidisciplinary framework of the mind, drawing from the works of Skinner, Freud, and Darwin, as well as several notable historical and contemporary psychologists.
Now, for the negatives. Like much of psychology, a significant portion of the literature referenced in this book has come under new scrutiny amid the ‘replication crisis’. A key theme of the book, known as ‘social priming’, has faced considerable criticism for resting on the unstable foundation of unreliable, selectively published research. This isn’t the venue for dissecting the reliability of Bargh’s research techniques, but it is a significant oversight that he fails to address these criticisms at all.
Bargh’s overly broad application of the term ‘unconscious’ effectively renders it meaningless, in my view. He employs it for any behavior we do not fully articulate all causes for. Challenges in obtaining reliable self-reports regarding internal states, coupled with the privileged perspective of experimenters (who are aware of the experiment’s conditions) compared to participants (who know only one condition), make it invalid to conclude from a lack of reporting that a participant is completely unaware of a factor influencing their behavior. Bargh can use ‘unconscious’ to suggest ‘not often discussed’ if he chooses, but this misleads the reader, who might assume the term carries significant conceptual weight.
Bargh’s book ultimately falls short of its potential. The real-world cases of individuals whose actions have been ‘unconsciously’ shaped that he presents to enliven his chapters are engaging, yet the analysis lacks depth and could have been more intricately connected with the experimental outcomes. The experiments discussed are intriguing, but – perhaps due to my academic perspective – I would have appreciated more exploration of possible interpretations and additional details on the exact findings. The theoretical representation of the mind he pursues is attractively syncretic, as noted earlier, but the experiments seem mainly to validate certain theoretical concepts, leaving it often ambiguous what theories they challenge or practical implications they support. Lastly, while the author’s personal narrative and character are frequently spotlighted in the book, it is presented in a frustratingly superficial manner.