Editing Automaticity (section)

==Characteristics==
[[John Bargh]] (1994), based on over a decade of research, suggested that four characteristics usually accompany automatic behavior:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak5/excops/download/four_horsemen_of_automaticity.pdf |title=The Four Horsemen of Automaticity: Awareness, lntention, Efficiency, and Control in Social Cognition |author=John A Bargh |accessdate=2014-02-16 |publisher=New York University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222000524/http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak5/excops/download/four_horsemen_of_automaticity.pdf |archive-date=February 22, 2014 }} {{link note|note=NOTE: Missing pages 24-25.}}</ref>
;Awareness 
:A person may be unaware of the mental process that is occurring.
;Intentionality
:A person may not intentionally initiate a mental process.
;Efficiency
:Automatic mental processes tend to have a low [[cognitive load]], requiring relatively low mental resources. 
;Controllability 
:A person may not have the ability to stop or alter a process after initiation.

Bargh states that these are simply common characteristics; not all are needed for a process to be considered automatic. For instance, [[Stereotype#Activation|stereotype activation]] has been described as an automatic process: it is unintentional and efficient, requiring little effort.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bargh |first1=John |last2=Chen |first2=Mark |last3=Burrows |first3=Lara |year=1996 |title=Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action |url=http://www.cuclasses.com/stat1001/homeworks/studies/socialbehavior.pdf |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=230–244 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.230 |accessdate=February 16, 2014 |pmid=8765481 |s2cid=6654763 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903153500/http://www.cuclasses.com/stat1001/homeworks/studies/socialbehavior.pdf |archive-date=September 3, 2013 }}</ref> However stereotype activation is accompanied by above chance awareness<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doyen |first1=Stephanie |last2=Klein |first2=Oliver |last3=Pichon |first3=Cora-Lise |last4=Cleeremans |first4=Axel |year=2012 |title=Behavioral priming: it's all in the mind, but whose mind? |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=e29081 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0029081 |pmid=22279526 |pmc=3261136|bibcode=2012PLoSO...729081D |doi-access=free }}</ref> and if conflicting processing goals are available then it becomes controlled.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blair |first1=Irene |last2=Mahzarin |first2=Banaji |year=1996 |title=Automatic and controlled processes in stereotype priming |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~mrbworks/articles/1996_JPSP.pdf |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=1142–1163  |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1142 |accessdate=February 16, 2014}}</ref> Therefore, stereotype activation only satisfies two of Bargh's criteria, but is still considered to be an example of automatic processing.