ABSTRACT
Gordon Allport, the founder of social psychology, avoided probing the possible unconscious components of an attitude because he wanted attitudes to be observable and to be subject to scientific investigation. Allport's views have dominated the field of attitude measurement in psychology for a very significant period. Some theorists have argued that implicit and explicit attitudes have structurally distinct mental representations. Attempts to change behaviour are based on the concept of the self-reported attitude and the self-reported attitude is based on a particular concept of communication, with language as the only conduit of meaning. Gesture - speech mismatches appeared when explicit and implicit attitudes were not congruent; they seemed to be absent when the explicit and implicit attitudes were congruent. Gesture may reflect parts of our unconsciously held attitudes. Gestures may reflect our hidden thoughts, where such thoughts may even be hidden from our conscious self.
