Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects

Claims about unawareness are abundant in attitude research. This article provides an analysis of evidence regarding three aspects of an attitude of which people may lack awareness: (a) the attitude itself, (b) its environmental causes, and (c) its behavioral effects. Our analysis reveals that, despite widespread claims of unawareness of the three aspects, strong empirical evidence for these claims is surprisingly scarce. The article concludes with a discussion of the most likely aspects of attitudes that people may be unaware of; their relation to contextual factors that might influence evaluative responses outside of awareness; open questions about the (un)awareness of attitudes, their environmental causes, and their behavioral effects; and methodological recommendations for future research that aims to provide more compelling evidence for aspects of attitudes that may evade awareness.