It's funny reading this thread, since I've studied quite a bit of this stuff (Bachelor's of Science degree in Psychology, couple of hypnosis certifications, etc).
At this point in my life, I can sum most of this up by acknowledging that humans are little more than apes with very dextrous hands.
The only "unconscious" part at play here, is that most of us are not conscious (unconscious) of the fact that we are just apes with very dextrous hands-- and very many of us are in active denial of that on a regular basis.
We have the emotional system of primates, and it drives us whether we like it or not, and whether we admit it or not. This is often-- and very easily-- manipulated by salespeople, criminals, religions, politicians, bankers, advertising, trial lawyers, military strategists, propaganda, etc., and also by the most effective police and teachers.
Our "reasoning", language, critical thinking, moralizing, calculating, philosophizing, and in general frontal-lobe activity, is a recent and thin layer slapped atop of millions of years of reptilian, mammalian, simian, etc evolution. Agriculture, civilization, and written history are only some 10,000 years old, whereas modern humans are some 200,000 years old, and even that is a blink of an eye compared to our mammalian and earlier reptilian histories.
Why do humans do inexplicable things? Well, would it be explicable if they were apes, monkeys, or dogs? Then there's yer answer.