ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the conditions under which these subtle effects are most likely to occur and who is most susceptible to these influences. A number of predictions are possible based on the available literature. One possibility is that these contaminating effects are likely to influence all people in all situations about equally because the mechanisms of influence are either automatic, or require relatively little cognitive effort. Another point of view is that these effects are most likely to operate when conditions reduce the likelihood of thinking because when people are carefully considering their judgments and actions, the impact of such subtle factors should be attenuated. Yet a third possibility, and the focus of this chapter, is that many such contaminating effects occur under the most thoughtful situations and for the most thoughtful people, because subtle contaminants can influence cognition without awareness, and the more cognitions one has, the more bias that can occur.1
