Social psychologists have discovered an adaptive unconscious that allows people to size up the world extremely quickly, make decisions, and set goals—all while their conscious minds are otherwise occupied. The human mind operates largely out of view of its owners, possibly because that’s the way it evolved to work initially, and because that’s the way it works best, under many circumstances. Without such an efficient, powerful, and fast means of understanding and acting on the world, it would be difficult to survive.
… Curiously, people seem to be unaware of their own unawareness, rarely answering “I don’t know” when asked to explain their decisions. People freely give reasons for their preferences, even when it is clear that these reasons are confabulations and not accurate reports.
… Why are people so unaware of their unawareness? One reason may be because we do have access to a good deal of information that is immediate, compelling, and privileged. The fact that we experience a rich mental life makes it hard to recognize that the vast majority of our mental processes are not directly observable.