Gilbert, D. T. (1991). How mental systems believe. American Psychologist, 46(2), 107-119.
Is there a difference between believing and merely understanding an idea? R. Descartes (e.g., 1641 ) thought so. He considered the acceptance and rejection of an idea to be alternative outcomes of an effortful assessment process that occurs subsequent to the automatic comprehension of that idea. This article examined B. Spinoza's (1982) alternative suggestion that (1) the acceptance of an idea is part of the ...