The psychological effect called priming describes how our perception is influenced by experience. Here we explain what’s behind it.
You probably know this game: someone says a term and you answer with the first wordthat occurs to you. For example, a table – many of us would probably counter that “chair”. And this is where a very interesting field of psychology begins Priming, or also “Priming effect”, is called. One could translate it with the German word “preparation”. And that is exactly what our thinking apparatus does: It uses associations, that is Empirical valuesso that we can classify a situation more quickly – in order to “prepare” for it. This usually happens quite subconsciously and without effort.
Priming: what is it exactly?
In scientific terms, priming is the Influencing the processing of a stimulus designated. Stimuli can be words, pictures, gestures or smells, for example. Expressed in a simple way: Previous experiences change our perception. That sounds a bit complex, but we actually encounter priming everywhere in everyday life: in relationships, at work, but also when shopping.
We all know the saying “The first impression counts“. This phenomenon is also based on priming and certain associations that we associate with certain behaviors and properties. For example, the misshapen tomato is left behind. And if someone wears dirty shoes, we subconsciously attribute uncleanliness and disorder to them.
The difficulty: Priming makes us influenceable and priming is not always right: misshapen tomatoes can also taste great and dirty shoes do not necessarily mean that the apartment looks just as unclean.
in the marketing our associations around colors, shapes and feelings are played particularly hard in order to have a positive influence on purchasing behavior. A number of studies have already shown the effects priming has on our behavior and our decisions.
Two studies that prove the priming effect
Scientists have already been able to prove the priming effect in a number of studies. For example, through this one from 2012: A man should find out where it is easiest to to get the phone number from a strange woman. To do this, he stood in front of three different shops in an American shopping mall: a shoe shop, a bakery and a flower shop. And where did he have the most success? When he approached women in front of the flower shop, of course. We associate roses with Romance and love – that had underlined his credibility and trustworthiness.
Another study was able to show particularly impressively how ours Purchasing behavior is guided by the priming effect. For this purpose, an online furniture store set up two different landing pages (the first page you see on a website). In the first variant were couches with a pretty Clouds background shown. Website visitors were then asked what they look for when buying furniture. They prioritized comfort and spent a lot of time on the site looking for comfort ratings. In the end, they actually mainly bought the furniture that promised a high level of comfort.
For the second test the same couches were shown on the landing page, but with a background in which Coins were to be seen. According to the survey, new website visitors set a completely different focus when buying: the costs. They stated that the price is the main reason for buying (not convenience, as with the comparison group), primarily looked for information about prices in the online store and then bought the cheapest copy.
What these studies prove
If the focus was on clouds, comfort was the main focus. If, on the other hand, the focus was shifted to coins, the price came to the fore. Although the couches shown were exactly the same, the one fell Assessment of the website visitors is completely different. The elements of the background had influenced her perception.
The reason for this is our experience, on which associations are based: We have learned that coins symbolize money and remind us of the fluffy shape of clouds. We then link these impressions with the new situation – completely automatically, completely subconsciously. This not only changes the perception of the objects themselves, but also influences what relevance these objects have for us. Whether we like it or not, our environment has a major impact on how we assess situations, people or – in this case – objects.
Priming in relationships
Priming also has a huge impact on an interpersonal level. Whether friendship, partnership or professional relationship: Here, too, our past influences how we perceive situations. And here, too, we can be directed.
For example, anyone who suffers from severe jealousy knows the problem: A missing call, the partner comes too late and bang – this gut feeling is there. From a factual point of view, that doesn’t mean unfaithfulness, but through experience the association is instantly there.
Or what if a good friend the same perfume wears like a mean colleague? Then you are primed – the perfume will never smell good to you, because you associate negative things with it. We all maybe also know the situation in which we are certain names with positive or negative traitsconnect – because we knew a person who acted accordingly. This is also the reason for the priming effect.
Priming: These are the pitfalls of the effect
Priming is a universal effectthat occurs in every human being. Of course, differences in extent result from the individual experiences that have shaped us differently. But We cannot completely escape the priming effect – To do this, we would have to erase all of our experiences that we have made up to now.
Priming means that we can assess new things more quickly – but it also makes us very manipulable. And that in turn causes us to be in situations cannot really remain objective and factual and perceive the situation in a distorted way. As a result, we sometimes make decisions that are not optimal.
What we can do, however, is become aware of this effect. Priming is automatic – we have to take countermeasures Help “manually” and try to analyze situations soberly. To be aware here and now that your past affects your perceptionis already the first step!
If you are interested in psychological topics, you might also be interested in the scanner personality or the topic of Quarter Life Crisis.
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Sources used
forbes.com, Cialdini, Robert B. “Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.” , 2016. Print., Guéguen N. “Say it … near the flower shop”: further evidence of the effect of flowers on mating. J Soc Psychol. 2012 Sep-Oct; 152 (5): 529-32. doi: 10.1080 / 00224545.2012.683463. PMID: 22930994.