We are all interested in these basic questions but I got to spend my adult life trying to find the answers to them - getting paid for what I wanted to do anyway, not bad eh? It is about my career as a scientist interested in free will and what human consciousness is actually for - I wanted a better, more specific answer than 'everything', which is where things were when I started in the 1970s. I've edited a dozen or so academic books covering research and theory in psychology, but writing this book was a completely new experience.

'Before You Know It' is my first book for a general audience. We are all interested in these basic questions but I got to spend my adult life trying to find the answers to them - getting paid for what I wanted to do anyway, not bad eh? So I majored in psychology (and minored in Led Zeppelin, as a late night FM disc jockey) in college In other words, if the world has a negative impression of you and you’re made aware of that fact, you tend to fulfill that negative impression - which can be particularly problematic, as many such stereotypes are instilled in us since childhood.'Before You Know It' is my first book for a general audience. Let’s take a phenomenon called stereotype threat - a situation where people who are subtly made aware of a stereotype against them tend to actually behave according to that stereotype. So Before You Know It shouldn’t necessarily be regarded as the be-all-end-all of conscious and unconscious behavior, but rather as a collection of thorough, modern, and scientifically sound pieces of evidence - many of which will certainly surprise you.

Historically, replicability issues have plagued social psychology, and Bargh himself has not been spared from such issues. However, within the realm of this particular branch of science, not all is clear. Bargh’s own creative and thorough experiments played an important part in advancing social psychology. He takes us through a number of pivotal experiments and trials. You could hardly find a better writer for this type of book. John Bargh is a highly respected social psychologist currently working at Yale University who’s dedicated his life towards understanding what behaviors are a result of our own will, and what behaviors come as an automatic response to external stimuli.

Before you know it bargh