"The benefits of “sleeping on things”: Unconscious thought leads to automatic weighting" by Maarten W. Bos, Ap Dijksterhuis, Rick B. van Baaren

Summary

This Journal of Consumer Psychology article investigates the idea that unconscious thought can improve decision-making by facilitating an automatic weighting process. Through a series of experiments where participants chose between cars based on varying attributes, the authors, Bos, Dijksterhuis, and van Baaren, demonstrate that allowing time for unconscious processing leads to better weighting of important versus unimportant attributes. They propose that this unconscious weighting explains why "sleeping on things" can lead to more satisfactory choices, suggesting our brains actively differentiate vital from irrelevant aspects when given a period of rest before making a final judgement. The study provides empirical support for the notion that unconscious thought enhances decision quality, challenging alternative explanations and highlighting the benefits of allowing time for deliberation.