Where a Thought Comes From

Some thoughts arrive finished. Nobody seems to have thought them. They sound like facts about the world. In KTT’s broad reading, a thought counts even when it was never noticed, and each route below ends in one. Research describes the routes under other names, and the studies read for this article did not trace any single thought to its source.

The culture speaks

“This is just how things are.” The thought says it without a source. In 1991, Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama proposed that cultures differ in how the self is understood: as independent, defined by its own traits, or as interdependent, defined by its ties to others. They argued that this shapes how people think, feel and are motivated. The Southern African idea of ubuntu points the same way. John Mbiti wrote in 1969: “I am because we are.” The Nguni proverb umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu says a person is a person through other persons. Later tests of Markus and Kitayama’s claims show mixed results, and Mbiti’s single African philosophy is debated.

The early years speak

“This is what a person like me thinks.” The thought sounds old, and it may be. Aaron Beck’s cognitive model describes three levels: quick automatic thoughts, rules and assumptions beneath them, and core beliefs about oneself, others and the world. The model holds that core beliefs are generally learned early in life. It is a model, not a measurement. It grew out of work on depression, and it does not show that any one belief came from any one event.

The room speaks

“Everyone thinks so.” In Solomon Asch’s experiments from the 1950s, people judged line lengths after a unanimous group gave a clearly wrong answer. About a third of the answers followed the group. About three quarters of participants followed it at least once, and about a quarter never did. With one ally, conformity fell sharply. The participants were mainly male American students.

The fourth route

A fourth route is a thought that was chosen. It has no study here. Whether any thought is ever fully chosen is not known, and the studies read for this article did not test it. In KTT’s broad reading, unnoticed thoughts count, which makes the question harder to test.

What is not known

How much of any given thought is inherited, learned early or borrowed from a group is not known. The studies read here describe routes, not shares. Whether tracing a thought to its source changes it is also open.