ABSTRACT
Books about social research or research methods do not usually talk much about how the brain works in general, or the nature of conscious and unconscious thought in particular. Indeed, these things might not even appear to be relevant. In the social sciences it often seems to be assumed that people have a set of attitudes or opinions, as well as actual behaviours, which we can ask them about and which they will hopefully tell us. I say ‘hopefully’ here, because it is commonly acknowledged that there are difficulties in getting people to report on these things: some people are shy, prefer to be private, or may not want to admit to thoughts or behaviours which are frowned upon socially.
