ABSTRACT
In the target chapter, Bargh reports a number of fascinating instances of automatic processing in everyday life, in which people unconsciously apply previously activated cognitive structures to routine behaviors, like walking, talking, and reacting to people. My thesis in this chapter is that the phenomena that Bargh and others observe in everyday life also occur in academic life. In fact, one could construe much of the current work on automaticity in the social cognition literature as an example of unconscious application of a previously activated cognitive structure. The cognitive structure is the resource theory of automaticity. Bargh, himself, does not endorse this theory consciously or otherwise in his target article or in his other writings (e.g., Bargh, 1989, 1992; Bargh & Pietromonaco, 1982), but many of his colleagues do (e.g. Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988; Wegner, 1994). My commentary is addressed more to them than to Bargh.
