Chartrand & Bargh (1996)

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Hamilton, Katz, & Leirer (1980) found that having the goal of forming a personality impression led to greater recall of a person’s behaviors than having the goal of simply remembering the behaviors. Chartrand and Bargh (1996) replicated that pattern of results by unobtrusively priming participants with either “form impression” words (judge, evaluate) or “memorize” words (retain, hold). Their findings suggest that goals that are activated unobtrusively operate similarly to goals that are initiated by conscious decision.

Further Reading

Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479.