Imagine you read the following words: entrance, wood, room, handle. Now guess what this next word is: D–R.
Did you fill the blanks and discovered DOOR?
Imagine now you read the following words instead: love, close, friend, family. Now guess what this next word is: D–R.
Did you fill the blanks and discovered DEAR?
Now, just for our own sake, let’s try to find priming words for DARK and DORK.
For DARK: sleep, night, black
For DORK: stupid, foolish, dumb…
Imagine you read the following sentence: « From January to July, week after week, the dwarfs helped SnowWhite become a wonder of the world ».
If you were asked now, to write down the first figure that comes to your mind, the probability you chose « 7 » would be high. Right?
The words entrance, wood, room, handle relate to each other and to DOOR.
The words love, close, friend, family relate to each other and to DEAR.
In the other example: from January to July: 7 months; week after week: 7 days; dwarfs: 7 people; wonder of the world: 7 elements.
Unconsciously, « 7 » occurred 4 times and no matter what the context is, this remains a hidden message in our memory.
A lot of people studied this psychological effet, called « priming ». By the way, the concept has been (mis)used by marketeers and advertising people for a long time. Even the famous Colombo was confronted with priming (subliminal advertising) in one investigation on a murder. Of course, this can be associated to manipulation. It is true, all these methods need to be examined closely at the light of values and ethics. It is everybody’s responsibility to use these techniques for the greater good of people.
In 1999, researchers conducted an experiment in a grocery store. For two weeks, French and German music were played on alternating days and the amount of French wine versus German wine sold was measured. Additionally, purchasers of wine were asked to fill out a brief survey, the results of which revealed that they were “unaware of effects of music on their product choices. More French wine was sold on days when French music was playing and more German wine was sold on the German music days. A simple, auditory prime had a significant effect on buying behavior, that consumers were not consciously aware of
One famous experience presents people who walk through a long corridor and whose speed, while walking, is measured. They enter a room and have to carry out a task: reading a document. Then, they leave the room, walk back through the same corridor, while their speed is measured again. Researchers have determined that their speed varied between before and after the task they had to carry out, in function of the content of the document. For example, if the document was describing the life of a person in an old people’s home, the speed would decrease during the way back. On the contrary, the speed would increase if the document depicted a party with lots of young people, danse and music.
Simple actions and behaviours can shape our emotions and how we feel. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel price in Economics in 2002, points out that “Being amused tends to make you smile and smiling tends to make you feel amused.”. So putting a pen in your mouth horizontally can force you to form a smile expression and, as a consequence, you will feel (a bit) happier. You could also find jokes funnier.
There is a interesting illustration of the priming effect in the movie « focus » with famous actor Will Smith. From minute 31 till 47, the whole scene is based on multiple elements of priming and different persons who are primed.
In training, the priming effect can be used as follows:
- Announce the training plan from introduction with clear differences between discussion, role-plays…
- Propose visual pictograms on manuals
- Establish links between topics
Check also this link with a « funny » illustration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRTFPPBZGnI
Like priming, many other psychological mechanisms, numerous other influencing tools and techniques have been discovered by researchers, mainly in economics and social psychology, valid of course in sales, marketing, leadership, communication…
What can we do in order to be less influenced by numerous priming stimuli around us? Not much because it is occurring below the surface of conscious thoughts. But we always can the following things:
1) Focus our attention on less known elements when it comes to persuasion and bring them through the ethics lens
2) Raise our level of vigilance in situations where we are consumers
3) Strengthen decision-making processes
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