DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Who Is Rational and When?

Who Is Rational?: Individual Differences in Reasoning
By Keith E. Stanovich. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999. 296 pp. Cloth, $69.95; Paper, $32.50.

As a social psychologist specializing in individual differences in motivation and cognition, I was surprised that the issue of whether there is such a thing as irrational thought still exists. Although it is almost as unforgivable in social psychology as it is in cognitive psychology to mention Sigmund Freud with anything but disdain, our literature seems to be more accepting of the notion that irrational thought is alive and well. In fact, some of the major stepping stones in social motivation and cognition are in the realm of decision making outside of conscious awareness (cf. Uleman & Bargh, 1989). This form of decision making could result from priming effects (Higgins, Rholes, & Jones, 1977), motivational variables (cf. Atkinson & Birch, 1970; Sorrentino, 1996), or simply unintended thought based on the similarity of environmental cues to past history (Bargh, 1990). However, in Who Is Rational?: Individual Differences in Reasoning, Keith Stanovich is convincing in assuring us that some people refuse to accept this possibility. He believes it is important that all of us accept the fact that irrational thought does exist. My own reading of this conundrum is that if cognition researchers understood the important role of motivation in terms of who is rational, they would conclude that all of us are capable of rational thought, but often we prefer not to use it. Let me first review for the reader the controversy, the proof, and the passion I see in this book and then try to offer some observations.