If there was ever a social realm where deliberation seems to matter, politics is one of them. From the electoral selection of lawmakers, to the evaluation of public policies, politics demands from its citizens at least a modicum of attention and reflection to decide between alternatives.

But political deliberation is costly (e.g., Downs 1957). It requires mental energy (e.g., Gailliot et al. 2007). And, the propensity to exert such effort is not uniformly distributed across the polity (cf. Althaus 1998; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996; Zaller 1992). Certain citizens are simply more motivated than others to engage in the mental effort that deliberation demands (e.g., Sniderman et al. 1991). The end result is that when the public decides, some of this decision is underwritten by people who have meticulously considered their opinions, while some of it is driven by people who have thought less about their views. Seen from this perspective, deliberation is a matter of degree, and this variation among fellow citizens affects the quality of the public's decision making.

Might these differences in people's inclination to deliberate also shape citizens’ reliance on implicit attitudes for political judgment?

It is certainly plausible. As I discussed earlier in Chapters 2 and 3, several social psychologists have argued that the connection between implicit attitude and individual judgment is not an all or nothing proposition (e.g., Gawronski and Bodenhausen 2011; Olson and Fazio 2009; Strack and Deutsch 2004; see also Eagly and Chaiken 1993: Chapter 7). Instead, these scholars maintain, the influence of implicit attitude depends on how motivated people are to avoid impulsive judgments, and whether they have enough opportunity to act on this motivation. The study of implicit racial attitudes captures the spirit of this view (e.g., Fazio and Dunton 1997; Fazio et al. 1995; see also Devine 1989). Scholars have shown that although these implicit attitudes can be spontaneously triggered, not all individuals act on this initial impulse. Some people are more sensitive to the prospect of appearing racially biased. Hence, when time or attention is in abundant supply, these individuals can follow through on their drive to remain unbiased by defusing the influence of their implicit attitude.

Whether intended or not, the normative appeal of this approach is easy to appreciate. Sure, implicit attitudes might be spontaneously activated. And yes, these attitudes might be beyond most people's awareness, even if for a brief moment.