Jonathan Schooler

Jonathan Schooler

Jonathan Schooler appears on this site as co-author with Timothy Wilson of the 1991 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology paper on how introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions.

Who they are

The work of Jonathan Schooler reaches this site through the paper listed below. On this site the name is tied to Reasons Analysis, Verbal Overshadowing.

Key papers

Wilson, T. D., & Schooler, J. W. (1991). Thinking too much: Introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 181-192. What it reports: Two studies. Students who analysed why they liked or disliked jams agreed less with expert ratings than those who did not, and analysing reasons when choosing courses led to choices that matched expert opinion less closely.

Key ideas

Reasons Analysis: explaining why you like something, which can shift the preference towards reasons that are easy to say

Verbal Overshadowing: putting a perception into words can impair it, shown best for face memory

Sources

  1. Wilson, T. D., & Schooler, J. W. (1991). Thinking too much: Introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 181-192.