ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 06 July 2017 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01096 Edited by: Morten Overgaard, Aarhus University, Denmark Reviewed by: Elisabeth Norman, University of Bergen, Norway Glenn Carruthers, Charles Sturt University, Australia *Correspondence: Katie E. Garrison k_garrison@tamu.edu Specialty section: This article was submitted to Consciousness Research, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 30 December 2016 Accepted: 13 June 2017 Published: 06 July 2017 Citation: Garrison KE and Handley IM (2017) Not Merely Experiential: Unconscious Thought Can Be Rational. Front. Psychol. 8:1096. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01096 Not Merely Experiential: Unconscious Thought Can Be Rational Katie E. Garrison 1 * and Ian M. Handley 2 1 Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States, 2 Department of Psychology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States Individuals often form more reasonable judgments from complex information after a period of distraction vs. deliberation. This phenomenon has been attributed to sophisticated unconscious thought during the distraction period that integrates and organizes the information (Unconscious Thought Theory; Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, 2006). Yet, other research suggests that experiential processes are strengthened during the distraction (relative to deliberation) period, accounting for the judgment and decision benefit. We tested between these possibilities, hypothesizing that unconscious thought is distinct from experiential processes, and independently contributes to judgments and decisions during a distraction period. Using an established paradigm, Experiment 1(N = 319) randomly induced participants into an experiential or rational mindset, after which participants received complex information describing three roommates to then consider consciously (i.e., deliberation) or unconsciously (i.e., distraction). Results revealed superior roommate judgments (but not choices) following distraction vs. deliberation, consistent with Unconscious Thought Theory. Mindset did not have an influence on roommate judgments. However, planned tests revealed a significant advantage of distraction only within the rational-mindset condition, which is contrary to the idea that experiential processing alone facilitates complex decision-making during periods of distraction. In a second experiment (N = 136), we tested whether effects of unconscious thought manifest for a complex analytical reasoning task for which experiential processing would offer no advantage. As predicted, participants in an unconscious thought condition outperformed participants in a control condition, suggesting that unconscious thought can be analytical. In sum, the current results support the existence of unconscious thinking processes that are distinct from experiential processes, and can be rational. Thus, the experiential vs. rational nature of a process might not cleanly delineate conscious and unconscious thought. Keywords: unconscious thought, rational and experiential systems, consciousness, problem solving, judgment and decision making INTRODUCTION People can rely on a variety of processes to guide their decisions and judgments regarding complex information. For example, one might think carefully and rationally, or alternatively “feel out” information to arrive at a conclusion. Indeed, many dual-process models in psychology propose that judgments and decisions can predominantly result from either analytical or Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2017 | Volume 8 | Article 1096