Definition of Social Automaticity
Social automaticity was defined by Mather and Romo (2007) as “our unintentional social thoughts and behaviors.” It draws on empirical research from social cognition, such as the work of Mahzarin Banaji, John Bargh, Tanya Chartrand, Ap Dijksterhuis, and Anthony Greenwald. This line of research was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Little, Brown, & Company, 2005).
Social Automaticity Class
Dr. Mather teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social automaticity in the Department of Psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma. The courses examine issues of automaticity and cognitive control in prejudice, discrimination, attitudes and persuasion, impression formation, bias correction, and neuroscience. Social automaticity in subliminal advertising and evolutionary forensic psychology are also discussed in detail. The primary textbook for both courses is Automaticity and Cognitive Control in Social Behavior (Fountainhead, 2007).