ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses how individuals form judgments on the basis of information that is on their mind through processes where the available information is examined, evaluated, and used to form a judgment in a deliberative way. Many of our daily judgments are prompted by our social interactions. Information accessibility exerts its influence because individuals do not engage in a complete review of all potentially relevant information, but truncate their search processes. Because automatic judgments require very few mental resources, their operation is not affected by individuals' ability and willingness to allocate mental resources to the judgmental task. The chapter holds two additional messages. First, it is indeed the case that much of social judgment can be explained by determining which information comes to mind most easily at the time the judgment is made. The second, often overlooked message holds that individuals do not rely blindly on what is on their mind.
