We Are Oblivious to Hidden Cues That Affect Our Perceptions and Actions
This may not work on hormonally-hit teenagers (sorry weary parents) yet you might try it with friends, customers or colleagues. Suppose, for example, you’re tired of the dirty cups in the office coffee nook. Try spraying the air with a lemony scent reminiscent of a cleaning agent.
When those sloppy colleagues smell it they are more likely to tidy up. That’s what several psychologists have discovered, including Jonathan Haidt, Henk Aarts, Aaron Kay and John A. Bargh. Malcolm Gladwell describes some of Bargh’s “spooky” experiments that demonstrate the power of this effect.
This technique called priming. We are usually unaware that it is happening to us.
Yet it affects our attention, memories, performance and relationships. It prompts us taking a certain action, such as cleaning up that nook or alter an opinion.
Here’s another example. Yale students who’d volunteered to be part of a study were sent, one-by-one, down a hallway to the study they passed a lab assistant in the hallway.
As the assistant’s hands were full, holding a clipboard, textbooks, papers and a cup of either hot or iced coffee, he asked each student for a hand with the cup. A few minutes later the students read about a fictional person then ranked that individual on a range from warm, thoughtful and social to cold, selfish and less social.
You guessed it. Those who’d held the cup of hot coffee were more likely to rank that individual more positively than the students who’d held the iced java. They were “primed” to do so. Bargh and Robert Wyer relate this effect to “the automaticity of everyday life.”
As you’ve anticipated, priming can prompt “good” and “bad” behavior. See how Derren Brown “turned the tables” on persuasion experts – two thoughtful advertising executives with a priming “trick.”
We can also use this psychological nudge on ourselves to make better decisions or to simply feel better.
feel better
