Priming: Influencing Attitudes and Behaviors/Blend images/Blend images
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain the phenomenon of priming.
• Distinguish between subliminal and supraliminal primes.
• Discuss how priming is used in marketing.
• Understand the three theories of nonconscious thinking.
• Discuss the effect of priming in relation to stereotypes.
• Apply priming to real-world contexts.
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Revisiting the Definition of Persuasion Section 7.1
Do you chew your food to the beat of the music you hear? Does fast-tempo music lead you to
rush through your meal? In one study, over an 8-week period at a Dallas-area restaurant, the
background music varied between either slow or fast music to see what effect it might have
on diners (Milliman, 1986). The amount of money spent on food did not vary between the two
conditions, about $55. However, when slow music played, patrons spent about 56 minutes
dining in the restaurant, compared with only 45 minutes when fast music played. Further,
as patrons spent more time in the restaurant when slow music played, purchases from the
bar were significantly higher: $30 with slow music versus $22 with fast music. When slow
music played, patrons drank an average of three drinks per person more. Apparently, the slow
music helped to create a more relaxing atmosphere that encouraged patrons to linger, and as
patrons felt more relaxed, they tended to order more beverages from the bar.
Factors in your environment can do more than just affect your mood, however. Some cues
can actually influence what you think about or what you do. Priming is a phenomenon in
which a person is exposed to an external stimulus, either consciously or not, and this exposure
subsequently influences how the person responds to altogether different stimuli or
behaves in a different context. The initial prime could be a word, an image, or a smell that
makes the idea more accessible. The prime will only have an effect, though, to the extent
that it is related to other concepts; that is, raising the accessibility of one idea will also
increase the accessibility of other ideas that are in that same network of associations. This
is referred to as spreading activation.
In Chapter 5, on the theory of planned behavior, we saw how people could be persuaded
through rational, effortful deliberative thinking. In Chapter 6, on dual-process models, we saw
that people could be persuaded either by effortful thinking, or low-effort thinking, or a combination
of the two. In this chapter, we will see how people can be influenced through nonconscious
thinking processes, merely by making a concept or idea more accessible to the mind.
We can be affected by a seemingly endless number of factors—from a restaurant menu’s
weight, the tempo of music playing in the background, the type of lighting in a room, the comfort
of the chair we sit in. Those in the business of persuasion have begun to harness these
factors to influence people in many areas, such as sales, health, and politics. In this chapter,
we will explore the empirical research into the many ways we can be influenced without even
being aware of it.
7.1 Revisiting the Definition of Persuasion
If you recall the definition of persuasion in Chapter 1, action without thought cannot be
considered persuasion because the target’s free will is not involved. For an action to be an
attempt at persuasion, the target’s free will must be involved. Free will must involve reflective
awareness so that the target can make a conscious self-aware decision on how to respond to
the persuasion attempt. Priming does not force, or compel, a target to respond, so the person’s
free will is not violated, but neither is the target’s free will involved in the attempt. So,
strictly speaking, attempts, such as priming, to influence people outside the use of their free
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Subliminal and Supraliminal Primes Section 7.2
will cannot be considered to be persuasion. Many different kinds of cues in the environment
can lead people to change their behavior, but often people are unaware of them. In fact, when
people become aware of the cue, any influence over their action is eliminated. For example,
you saw in Chapter 1 that the weather, being either sunny or cloudy, had an influence on individuals’
satisfaction with life. However, when people were made aware that the weather can
influence attitudes, the weather no longer influenced their responses. So, because a target
usually is not consciously aware of the attempt to influence, the attempt cannot be labeled
persuasion. Further, although some automatic phenomena involve a target’s attitudes, other
attempts influence behavior without touching on a target’s attitudes.
Priming is a form of social influence, but it is not the same as persuasion. If you refer to Figure
1.1 in Chapter 1, you will see that automatic behavior (and compliance gaining, discussed in
more detail in Chapter 12) are related to, but distinct from, persuasion. In essence, priming
increases the accessibility of information from memory, and this information has an impact on
a person’s behavior in a way that the person is unaware of. Influence via priming is not, strictly
speaking, a form of persuasion because it does not meet the criteria for our definition of persuasion.
Because it happens at a nonconscious level, this kind of influence does not involve the
target’s free will, and, many times, it does not involve a conscious change in attitudes. However,
you should know how cues in a given context, such as smells or colors, can influence attitudes
and behavior. What’s more, this vein of research likely will lead to important changes to our
understanding of persuasion in the future. In fact, in many ways, it already has.
7.2 Subliminal and Supraliminal Primes
In the 1950s, James Vicary sparked widespread fear in the United States. He said that he had
conducted experiments at a movie theater in New Jersey that increased the sales of popcorn
and Coca-Cola®. He said he placed a single slide or a movie frame of the phrase Eat popcorn or
Drink Coca-Cola in an advertising film roll, and claimed that these subliminal messages made
people purchase popcorn and Coca-Cola. When the news came out, people around the country
went crazy. This was around the time of the red scare, when many Americans were afraid of the
threat of communist infiltration posed by the Soviet Union. Lawmakers started decrying the
dangers posed by subliminal images. Preachers ranted against the threats to society. The whole
country was in an uproar. Researchers were fascinated by the possibility, but they were unable
to replicate the supposed results. Decades later, Vicary admitted that he had made the whole
thing up (Weir, 1984) in an attempt to drum up business for his fledgling marketing firm.
Nevertheless, for decades, and even to this day, many people think that we can be persuaded
by subliminal images or messages. Some countries even have bans on the use of subliminal
content in commercial messages. And as it turns out, more sophisticated tests are beginning
to reveal that subtle cues can, in certain instances, influence a person’s attitudes and even a
person’s behavior. And, yes, some of these cues fall into the realm of the subliminal—and also
the supraliminal.
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Subliminal and Supraliminal Primes Section 7.2
A subliminal prime occurs below conscious
awareness, much like the original
subliminal message controversy
claimed. A supraliminal prime, on
the other hand, is one that a person is
aware of. On a technical note, whether
a prime is subliminal or supraliminal
is not a property of the prime itself; it
is a property of whether the person is
aware of it. For example, when wine
shoppers heard classical music in the
background, compared with pop music,
they tended to choose more expensive
wines and spend more money overall,
even though they did not purchase a
greater number of bottles (Areni & Kim,
1993). In another field experiment over
a 2-week period, supermarket sales
of French wine were higher on the
days that shoppers heard stereotypically French music, compared with German music (North,
Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999). (See Table 7.1.) Further, the vast majority of shoppers who
responded to a questionnaire seemed to be unaware of the influence of music on their wine
choice. The shoppers obviously sensed the music, but its influence occurred below the level of
consciousness.
Table 7.1: Bottles sold within each music condition
Bottles sold French music German music
French wine 40 12
German wine 8 22
Source: Adapted from North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999, p. 274.
Let’s consider an illustration of a supraliminal versus subliminal prime. If you walk through a
shopping mall and smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies, that aroma could prime a memory
of your grandmother, if that aroma is already associated with your grandmother. If you
are consciously aware of the aroma (e.g., “Oh, I love the smell of those cookies baking!”) and
also then remark to yourself that the smell reminds you of your grandmother, then the aroma
primed you supraliminally. If you did not notice the aroma, however, and “out of nowhere”
you think of your grandmother, then the aroma primed you subliminally. You very likely won’t
be aware of this priming, of course, because if you didn’t consciously note the aroma of the
cookies, then the thought of your grandmother will seem to you completely random. Likewise,
the smell will remind you of your grandmother only if you already have an association
between that smell and your grandmother in your memory. Your friend could walk by the
same cookie store and not be reminded of her grandmother if there is no association in her
memory between the aroma of baking cookies and her grandmother.
LOOK-foto/LOOK-foto
Music is a prime that can influence how much diners
purchase.
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Priming and Marketing Section 7.3
You saw in Chapter 2 that people can form an impression of a person’s interpersonal warmth
from viewing a face for as little of one-tenth of a second (Willis & Todorov, 2006). People also
form impressions of a website in a split second. This length of time is hardly long enough for
a person to engage in effortful deliberation; people have developed the ability to make an
evaluation nearly automatically. And people are constantly engaging in automatic thought.
Because of the spreading activation of ideas in a network, priming one concept can increase
the accessibility of related ideas automatically. So, any idea that has been primed has the
potential to influence someone’s impression of a target, whether that target is a menu, cookies,
or a bottle of wine.
7.3 Priming and Marketing
There is ample empirical evidence mounting that subliminal primes have more influence than
once believed. And this research is already having a profound impact on marketing strategies.
Priming and Goals
Priming may have significant impact in the context of marketing, especially to an audience
that already is goal directed. For example, priming someone with thirst-related words can
lead a person to drink more, but only if that person is already thirsty. If that person is not
thirsty, then a subliminal prime will have no effect.
Let’s see how this was tested in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment that manipulated thirst (thirsty
versus not thirsty) and a subliminal prime (thirst prime versus neutral prime) (Strahan, Spencer,
& Zanna, 2002). People were asked not to eat or drink anything 3 hours before the study,
which supposedly was a marketing study in which they would sample and evaluate a variety of
products. At the beginning of the study, they sampled a couple of cookies and evaluated them.
After this taste test, half of the participants were offered water “to cleanse the palate” and were
told they could drink as much water as they wanted. The other half did not receive any water. So,
half of the participants remained thirsty and the other half quenched their thirst.
All of the study participants then were seated at a computer and instructed to tell whether a
set of letters flashed on the screen was a word or not. Unknown to them, though, they were
also presented subliminal primes for a split second. Half of the participants were exposed
to thirst-related words such as “thirst” and “dry,” while the others were exposed to neutral
words, such as “pirate,” and “won.” After this, everyone participated in another taste test,
this time of two sweetened beverages, and they were told they could drink as much as they
wanted. After the participants left, the experimenter measured how much beverage they
had consumed.
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Thirsty
Thirst-Related Primes
Neutral Primes
Not Thirsty
120
110
140
180
160
200
130
170
150
190
210
mL Consumed
Subliminal Priming Condition
Priming and Marketing Section 7.3
It turned out that when people were not
thirsty, the thirst-related primes had no
effect on how they drank. However, people
who were thirsty and had been primed
with thirst-related words drank significantly
more than thirsty people who had
been exposed to neutral words (see Figure
7.1). Thirsty people who had been
primed with neutral words did not drink
any more than the not-thirsty people. That
means that when a goal is already present,
a prime can influence someone’s behavior
toward that goal.
So, a subliminal prime can influence how
much someone drinks, but can a subliminal
prime influence an ad’s persuasiveness?
The researchers conducted a similar
experiment that only involved thirsty
people. That is, no one drank water at the
beginning of the experiment. As before,
half of the participants were exposed subliminally
to thirst-related words and half
were exposed to neutral words. Then,
they examined two ads for sports beverages
at the same time. One ad was for the
“Super-Quencher” and touted the beverage’s effectiveness in quenching thirst. The other ad
was for the “PowerPro” and highlighted the beverage’s ability to restore electrolytes. After
this, they reported their attitude toward the ads. They also were offered a total of nine coupons
for the beverages and could choose how many they wanted of each type of beverage.
People who had been exposed to the subliminal thirst primes rated the Super-Quencher more
favorably than the PowerPro, but people who had been exposed to the neutral primes rated
each beverage about the same (see Figure 7.2). Also, people who were exposed to the thirst
primes chose a greater number of coupons for Super-Quencher than for PowerPro, compared
with those who were exposed to the neutral primes.
So, we see that a prime can influence a person’s choice when that goal is already relevant.
Thirsty people were more likely to favor a thirst-quenching beverage over a nonquenching
beverage when they had been primed subliminally. But, what about choosing one brand of
a thirst-quenching beverage over another? Can consumers be primed with a brand name?
As you know, consumers can be very loyal to particular brands, so much so that the brand
becomes part of their identity. Some people identify themselves as a “Pepsi person” or a “Mac
person.” Among people who have strong brand loyalty, priming a particular brand is unlikely
to influence their behavior. However, when people face choices that do not involve their preferred
brand, a subliminal prime might be effective.
Figure 7.1: Priming and thirst
For participants who were already thirsty, exposure to
words like “thirst” and “dry” had a significant effect on
the amount of water they later consumed.
Source: Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Subliminal
priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 556–568, fig.1. Published by
Elsevier. Reprinted with permission.
Thirsty
Thirst-Related Primes
Neutral Primes
Not Thirsty
120
110
140
180
160
200
130
170
150
190
210
mL Consumed
Subliminal Priming Condition
mag81516_07_c07_143-162.indd 148 8/26/14 4:08 PM
Super-Quencher
Thirst-Related Primes
Neutral Primes
PowerPro
3.5
4.5
4
5
Rating of Sports Drinks
Subliminal Priming Condition
Low High
Lipton Ice
Prime
Control
Prime
Amount of Thirst
1
5
3
4
2
6
Intention to Drink Lipton Ice
Priming and Marketing Section 7.3
In other words, if you are thirsty and can
choose between a brand of iced tea and a
brand of mineral water, would priming
the tea brand lead you to choose the tea
over the water? To test this possibility,
scientists subliminally primed participants
with either the Lipton Ice® brand
or nonsense words (e.g., Npeic Tol) that
were made from the same letters and
were similar in length, which served as
the experiment’s control condition (Karremans,
Stroebe, & Claus, 2006). After
this, the participants were asked how
likely they were to choose Lipton Ice and
a brand of mineral water and indicate
how thirsty they felt. Participants who
had been exposed to the Lipton Ice prime
were more likely to choose the tea, if they
were thirsty. That is, the thirstier they
felt, the more likely they were to choose
Lipton Ice. This was not the case for those
who were exposed to the neutral prime
(see Figure 7.3). Also, the Lipton Ice
prime had no effect on people’s intention
to drink the branded water, regardless of
their thirstiness.
In a follow-up study, the scientists manipulated
participants’ thirst by giving half
of them a salty candy to taste, yielding
a 2 × 2 factorial design involving thirst
(thirsty versus not thirsty) and subliminal
prime (Lipton Ice versus control). Then,
all the participants were exposed to one
of the subliminal primes, after which they
were asked to choose between Lipton Ice
and the branded mineral water. As in the
previous experiment, participants who
were thirsty and who had been exposed
to the Lipton Ice brand were more likely
to choose Lipton Ice.
So, you can see that subliminal primes can
influence a person’s choice of a brand, but
only when a goal is already relevant. Also,
the primes likely would be most effective
in situations in which a consumer does
not already have a strong preference for
a particular brand. The studies we’ve just
discussed used words (lexical primes)
Figure 7.3: Intention to drink
Lipton Ice based on primes
According to this study, choice of brand can be influenced
by related primes when brand loyalty is not a factor.
Source: Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., & Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary’s
fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal
of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 792–798, fig. 1. Published by
Elsevier. Reprinted with permission.06).
Low High
Lipton Ice
Prime
Control
Prime
Amount of Thirst
1
5
3
4
2
6
Intention to Drink Lipton Ice
Figure 7.2: Priming and beverage
choice
People seemed to prefer a “thirst-quenching” beverage
after they have been exposed to words associated with
thirst.
Source: Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Subliminal
priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 556–568. Fig. 2. Published by
Elsevier. Reprinted with permission.
Super-Quencher
Thirst-Related Primes
Neutral Primes
PowerPro
3.5
4.5
4
5
Rating of Sports Drinks
Subliminal Priming Condition
mag81516_07_c07_143-162.indd 149 8/26/14 4:08 PM
Priming and Marketing Section 7.3
to test the possibility that subliminal priming could influence consumer behavior. However,
primes do not need to be words. Images, shapes, sounds, and smells might work just as well.
Further, the primes do not need to be subliminal, and neither do they need to be isolated from
other forms of persuasion and social influence.
Multisensory Primes
In 2012, Dunkin’ Donuts® added a coffee smell to its ad campaign in Seoul, South Korea. See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbU1jwLgaLQ. Scent dispensers installed on passenger
buses sprayed a coffee fragrance every time a radio ad for Dunkin’ Donuts coffee aired. The ad
highlighted the fact that coffee was available at Dunkin’ Donuts shops near bus stops, creating
a sense of immediacy. During the campaign, developed by ad agency Cheil Worldwide, sales
increased 29% at the Dunkin’ Donuts outlets located near bus stops, and customer traffic
increased 16%.
The ad engaged two senses of the audience. Passengers heard the ad’s content while they
simultaneously smelled the coffee. These two senses are processed in different parts of the
brain. The auditory element is processed by the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for
higher-order thinking, whereas the scent of the coffee is processed by the limbic system,
which processes our more basic, reflexive processes to stimuli. This second aspect, engaging
the more base, reflexive area of the brain, meant that passengers processed the smell automatically,
without thinking, and therefore it was this sensation that rendered the ad more
effective than a conventional radio ad alone. Pair this with the fact that Koreans are avid coffee
consumers, and so a coffee-drinking goal was already salient for many of the passengers,
thus making this one very powerful ad.
The campaign’s short-term goal was
obviously to prompt passengers to
purchase Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, thus
increasing revenue. But there is a
longer-term goal as well. The long-term
goal was to make Dunkin’ Donuts part
of the consumer’s consideration set,
which is a memory-based outcome.
One outcome of a persuasion attempt
can be to increase memory for a brand.
Regardless of whether the ad incited
passengers to immediately buy Dunkin’
Donuts coffee, it was, through addition
of a scent prime, trying to make Dunkin’
Donuts coffee more memorable to the
passengers. The limbic system is also
an integral part of memory creation
and storage, so by activating that part of
the brain with the scent of coffee, it also
is likely to register a more lasting memory with the person who experienced that smell. That
is, the scent functioned as a prime that was associated with the brand and the product in the
consumers’ memory. Through spreading activation, the scent would bring up these associated
Pietro scozzari/age fotostock
Multisensory primes with an ad boosted coffee sales
at Dunkin’ Donuts in South Korea.
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Priming and Marketing Section 7.3
ideas. Perhaps, then, in the future, Dunkin’ Donuts will be one of the brands recalled—that is,
one of the brands in a consideration set—for a would-be coffee drinker. And the real kicker? It
will be considered without any effortful thought.
Have you ever wondered whether the weight of a person’s business card or a resume influenced
your perception of that person? Do you think that holding heavy paper would lead
someone to think that the person had superior credentials? When we think about this rationally,
it would be silly to suppose that we could be influenced by something as irrelevant as a
menu’s weight. However, people are seldom entirely rational. A prime can take many forms,
any of which can prime a concept. And any concept that is primed can have an influence on
a person’s attitudes or behavior. Metaphorically speaking, we tend to think that something
“weighty” is more important and valuable, and priming the concept of weight can affect someone’s
attitudes toward a product.
For example, researchers asked people to sample yogurt in three bowls that were identical
in every way, except their weight (Piqueras-Fiszman, Harrar, Alcaide, & Spence, 2011). They
put the same yogurt in each bowl, but the bowls’ weight influenced people’s impressions of
the yogurt in them. The bowls’ weight did not affect their perceptions of the flavor intensity
or their liking, but the weight of the bowl led people to think that the yogurt in it was thicker
and that it cost more. This phenomenon seems to apply to a variety of products. For example,
people tend to guess that a heavier bottle of wine is more expensive and of higher quality,
than a lighter bottle (Piqueras-Fiszman & Spence, 2012). So, persuaders could influence consumers’
perceptions of their product just by making the packaging heavier or lighter.
People can also be primed by the sense of touch. Sitting in a soft chair can make someone psychologically
“softer,” while sitting in a hard chair can make someone “tougher.” For example,
people sitting in a hard chair, instead of a soft chair, recommended harsher criminal sentences
after reading a variety of scenarios (Cherkasskiy, Song, Malahy, & Bargh, 2012). In another
study, some people were sitting in a soft cushioned chair, while people in another experimental
condition were sitting in a hard wooden chair. They imagined shopping for new car and
making an offer to the dealer that was rejected. Then, the participants had to make a second
offer. People who sat in a hard chair took a harder negotiation stance and did not change
their initial offer as much as the people who were sitting in a soft chair (Ackerman, Nocera, &
Bargh, 2010). So, the next time you are in a negotiation or sales situation, make sure the other
party is sitting in a soft and comfortable chair, and make sure the people on your side are sitting
in hard chairs. Of course, if you know that you’re sitting in a hard chair, then it likely will
not have an effect on your negotiation style.
Just as we can be influenced automatically by a number of factors, such as weight, smell, and
touch, we also have a natural tendency to establish a sense of rapport with someone. This is
because establishing a sense of similarity enables smoother social interactions. So, priming a
sense of personal connection can affect how one person feels about another. For better or worse,
we tend to identify with people who share some similar characteristic, and this can influence
our behavior. For example, high school students tend to do better on a math test if they have
read about another high-achieving math student at another school who has the same birthday
as they do. Just this small bit of similarity is enough to prime an achievement goal, which helps
the students perform better on the exam (Walton, Cohen, Cwir, & Spencer, 2012).
mag81516_07_c07_143-162.indd 151 8/26/14 4:08 PM
Theories of Nonconscious Thinking Section 7.4
Likewise, people are more likely to complete a survey when the name of the person sending
the survey shares the same initial as the respondent (Garner, 2005). That is, if Richard Smith
receives a survey invitation from someone named Roger Hedrick, Richard is more likely to
complete that survey than if the survey had been sent to him by someone named Stanley Hedrick.
Just sharing the first initial of the first name is enough to establish a sense of similarity,
and the respondent is more likely to comply with the request.
People have a natural tendency to imitate each other’s behavior, which helps establish rapport
between people. However, this can also be used to influence somebody’s attitude about
you. In one study (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999), a person was invited to work on a photographevaluation
task. A study confederate was seated next to the person at a right angle and presumably
worked on the same task. However, the confederate imitated the participant’s
behavior. When the person leaned in, the confederate leaned in. When the participant folded
her arms, the confederate folded her arms. If the participant scratched her head, the confederate
scratched her head, too. The goal was to mirror the participant’s behavior without
drawing attention to it. So, the mimicking behavior occurred one or two seconds after the
participant engaged in a particular movement. After the task, participants were asked how
much they liked the confederate and so on. In the conditions when the confederate mimicked
the behavior, participants had a more favorable impression of the confederate, compared
with the condition in which the behavior was not mimicked.
So, the next time you meet someone, or
you have a sales pitch, try mimicking
that person subtly, if you dare. When
that person unfolds his arms, wait a
couple of seconds and then unfold
your arms. If he shifts to one side, wait
a couple of seconds and shift as well.
At a nonconscious level, that person is
more likely to feel a sense of rapport
with you. Some good sales people do
this instinctively, trying to match a customer’s
tone of voice, rate of speaking,
mannerisms, and so on, as they try to
“connect” with the customer. However,
if the person feels that you are
just mimicking, or being manipulative,
then you will have ruined what could
have been a good relationship.
7.4 Theories of Nonconscious Thinking
Although these priming phenomena are fascinating, general theories that might explain
these phenomena are still being worked out. You would be right to suspect that these relationships
are complex. People are remarkably complex, and it is only natural that the phenomena
would be complex, too. In fact, the field is experiencing considerable debate. Subtle
changes in contexts, the experimental materials, a person’s goals, and so on, can influence
Cordelia Molloy/Photo Researchers, Inc.
By subconsciously mimicking each other, people
can reinforce social ties, which can increase social
influence.
mag81516_07_c07_143-162.indd 152 8/26/14 4:08 PM
Theories of Nonconscious Thinking Section 7.4
these relationships. Sometimes, replications of a study have failed, which leads scholars to
doubt the veracity of the original findings (see Bartlett, 2013). Further, when a study reports
that there was no relationship, that study is much less likely to be published. After all, who
wants to read that “nothing happened,” unless you were really expecting something to happen?
This is sometimes known as the “file-drawer problem.” To make matters worse, a couple
of researchers have had to retract their published studies after they were found to have made
up study results (Bartlett, 2013). However, as you have seen thus far, the volume and breadth
of automatic phenomena studied by a number of independent scholars indicate priming and
automatic thought are real phenomena and not laboratory artifacts. The debate is healthy and
likely will lead to refinements in theories as scientists develop a better understanding of how
these nuanced phenomena function.
Scientists draw a useful distinction between mental content, namely what a person thinks,
and mental processes, namely how a person thinks. Many times a cue in the environment
can serve to prime mental content, but a cue can also exert an influence by affecting how a
person thinks. Environmental cues, such as the temperature a person feels, can function as
cognitive content, while other cues, such as colors, can influence cognitive processes. A person
who is engaged in low-effort automatic thinking is more likely to use environmental cues
as cognitive content. A person who is not engaged in this type of thinking is more likely to
ignore these cues (Magee, 2012).
In general, though, researchers have agreed that priming one concept has an influence on a
person’s attitudes and behavior in another area. We won’t dwell much on the theories because
the field is still in a state of flux, but you should be familiar with the thinking behind these
phenomena. Let’s look at some of these theories.
Embodied Cognition
Some scholars maintain that these
phenomena are a form of what is called
embodied cognition. Embodied cognition
maintains that something you feel
in your body can influence what you
think. That is, a primed physical sensation
can affect thoughts and behaviors
that are related to that sensation. For
example, let’s say you feel excited when
you ride a roller coaster and enjoy
other rides at a theme park. Those positive
feelings can influence your attitude
toward the person you are with
as those feelings transfer to the other
person. This phenomenon is called
excitation transfer (Zillmann, 2003)
or misattribution (Schwarz, 2011), in
which you mistakenly attribute what
you feel to some nearby target.
Jupiterimages/Exactostock
What you feel in your body can influence how you
feel about people near you.
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Theories of Nonconscious Thinking Section 7.4
Embodied cognition may also function as a metaphor (Lee & Schwarz, 2012). For example,
when something weighs a lot, we tend to think it is more important, or of more value, such
as the yogurt and wine examples mentioned earlier. Or, we associate a person’s interpersonal
warmth with the physical sensation of being warm, or something placed higher in a list as
more important than something similar that appears relatively lower. However, these effects
are not uniform. Recall that a subliminal prime can influence someone when a goal is already
relevant. In a similar way, priming a concept such as weight can influence a person’s thoughts,
but only if they are able to relate it to preexisting information in memory.
For example, participants were presented a questionnaire on a heavy clipboard or a light clipboard
(Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010). The questionnaire asked how much government
funding should be increased or decreased for a variety of social issues. When people were
familiar with the issue, they were willing to increase funding when the questionnaire was
presented on a heavy clipboard, compared with the light clipboard. When people were less
familiar with the issue, the weight of the clipboard did not exert an influence. In another study
(Chandler, Reinhard, & Schwarz, 2012), researchers hid a weight inside a book and asked
people to give their opinion of the book. When people knew something about the book, either
because they had read the book or because they had the opportunity to read a short overview,
they judged the book as being more important and influential when it weighed more.
Feelings-as-Information Theory
Another perspective is the feelings-as-information theory (Schwarz, 2011), in which affective
states are used as an input into what you think. In other words, how you feel becomes a
piece of information that your mind uses to evaluate something. Recall, for example, that
noticing if the weather is sunny or cloudy can influence how satisfied a person is with his or
her life (Schwarz & Clore, 1983). The color of a retail environment can influence shoppers’
attitudes and behavior. A blue environment can lead to pleasant feelings and a more satisfying
shopping experience. Red, in contrast, tends to lead to less pleasant feelings while shopping
(Bellizi & Hite, 1992). These feelings can then influence how a consumer perceives different
products, as the feelings “rub off” on a consumer’s impressions of a product.
The color of ambient lighting also can
influence our perceptions of taste and
value, but it can do so without noticeably
affecting a person’s feelings. Wine
consumers said that Riesling, a white
wine, tasted better in a room with blue
or red lighting than it did in a green or
white environment (Oberfeld, Hecht,
Allendorf, & Wickelmaier, 2009). People
who tasted the wine in the green
room also thought the wine was less
valuable. However, the colors did not
influence how people perceived specific
characteristics of the wine, such as
its fruitiness or intensity. A follow-up
study found a very small influence on
Fancy Collection/Fancy Collection
The weather can influence how you feel about
your life.
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Theories of Nonconscious Thinking Section 7.4
perceptions of taste, but not odor, which is also an important factor in determining how much
we like beverages and food.
More importantly, though, the influence of color on attitudes toward the wine was unrelated
to mood. That is, a particular color, such as blue, did not influence how a person felt, which
then could have influenced how that person evaluated the wine. This is in contrast to the
Bellizi and Hite (1992) finding that ambient color influenced how shoppers felt. So, in the
wine-tasting study, it appears that the ambient color had an influence on consumers’ attitudes
toward the wine and its perceived value, but this effect did not occur as a form of mental
content. That is, in contrast to the feelings-as-information theory, the tasters’ feelings were
not information that formed part of their evaluations of the wine.
Persuasion in Focus: Whole Foods and Priming
Martin Lindstrom, author of the book Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our
Minds and Persuade Us to Buy (2011), maintained that many companies attempt to “prime”
us to think and feel in certain ways about their space and merchandise. For example, Whole
Foods Market is one of the world’s largest organic retailers, boasting hundreds of stores in
North America and the United Kingdom. The store is premised on being ecologically and
environmentally conscious, while providing healthy, natural products that are often locally
grown and distributed. In his analysis of a Whole Foods Market grocery store, Lindstrom
argued that every detail of that customer experience is well thought out, that customers are
primed every step of the way to buy into the branding image of Whole Foods.
For instance, fresh cut flowers greet the customer at
the door. These flowers send olfactory, visual, and
associative messages of sweetness (suggesting calmness
and friendliness), bright colors (associated with
life and energy), and freshness (insinuating newness
or vibrancy). Below the flowers, prices are displayed
on a chalkboard, a practice associated with traditional
outdoor marketplaces. This display should
create feelings of shopping in a small town or being
transported to another place. The chalk is meant to
suggest the prices can change at any time. As you
make your way through the store, ice is strategically
and visibly placed to chill products like yogurt dip
or hummus. He said this ice is designed to convey
freshness and purity, as well. Finally, he said the store displays their food in boxes, once again
reinforcing the idea of old-time simplicity. This gives the impression that the boxes were loaded
directly from the farm, onto a truck, and then brought to the store. However, on close inspection
he said you’ll see it is all one box, carefully designed to make it appear as if each food item was
packed in a different box. Overall, the idea is to suggest farm freshness.
The next time you enter a grocery store, look more carefully at the layout, color scheme, and
product displays. Think about the messages that underlie these subtle packaging and display
techniques, and what types of thoughts and feelings they are meant to discreetly “prime.”
—Cheri Ketchum, Ph.D.
(continued)
Damian Dovarganes/ASSOCIATED PRESS
How many “primes” can you identify
in this photo?
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Theories of Nonconscious Thinking Section 7.4
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Have you seen other ways supermarkets use displays to evoke the ideas of small
farms and freshness?
2. Does the grocery store you shop at ever have photographs of the farmer, or a
description of where the produce items came from?
Reference
Lindstrom, M. (2011). Brandwashed: Tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to
buy. New York: Crown Business.
Unconscious Thought Theory
Unconscious thought theory holds that our minds are constantly evaluating information in
the “background,” leading to “intuitive” judgments that can be as accurate and well reasoned
as judgments arrived at via effortful reasoning (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). For example,
let’s say you are considering renting an apartment and you have several alternatives. If you
are considering four apartments on four different characteristics, conscious thought is quite
able to make a good choice. However, if you are considering those apartments on 12 different
characteristics, conscious thought is almost helpless in enabling you to make a good choice
(Dijksterhuis, 2004). Unconscious thought, on the other hand, can handle the complexity
quite well. After a period of distraction, you would be able to make a good choice. Your unconscious,
or better nonconscious, thought processes keep working in the background and are
able to organize complex amounts of information. This is why solutions to problems sometimes
come to you after you take a break and think about something else.
This background, effortless thinking occurs constantly and can be more efficient in handling
several pieces of relatively simple information at the same time. If so, then this type of automatic
thinking is always ready to influence our conscious thoughts, as long as someone is
motivated to reach an accurate conclusion. In fact, nonconscious thought processes seem to
work best after a period of conscious deliberation, which means that both processes probably
work best in partnership with each other (Bargh, Schwader, Hailey, et al., 2012).
So, if a target has been presented a number of reasons for preferring one alternative over others,
the target will continue to process the information while she is distracted by something
else. When facing a choice, some people say they need to “sleep on it,” or go running, or something
similar before they make their decision. Albert Einstein said he often played his violin
when he reached a difficult point in analyzing a problem in physics or developing theory.
Persuasion in Focus: Whole Foods and Priming (continued)
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Priming and Stereotypes Section 7.5
7.5 Priming and Stereotypes
Priming phenomena have implications in the world of marketing and advertising, but this
world doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Methods and messages in marketing campaigns influence,
and are influenced by, the socio-cultural context in which they’re created, and any cue could
prime the application of a stereotype. Primes can also be grouped under the label of automaticity
(Bargh & Chartrand, 1999) because of their automatic nature. Automatic thought is neither
good nor bad in itself. In fact, we could not function well if we had to think carefully and
deliberately over every single thing. Think back to when you learned to drive a car. At first,
everything was very complicated, and you had to think about your foot on the accelerator
versus the brake, or when to use the signals and the mirrors, and everything else. However, as
you gained practice, these behaviors became automatic, and you found that you were able to
talk and drive at the same time, as well as change the radio station.
Much of our automatic thought involves the application of stereotypes, which are a type of
heuristic. As you recall from Chapter 6, a heuristic is a snap judgment that people use as a
mental shortcut. A stereotype is a category that we apply quickly and effortlessly to something
that we encounter. You can walk into a furniture store, for example, and see a variety of
tables and quickly categorize each one as a table and not as a shelf or a bookcase. Sometimes,
we can have difficulty classifying something as being a chair or a table because it does not
readily fit a known stereotype. We can walk through a museum of modern art, or avant-garde
design, and encounter things that do not fit the regular stereotype of a table, or a coat rack,
or a lamp. In these cases, we have to stop and think about the object before we can recognize
what it is.
We use stereotyping to our advantage. Because it helps us make sense of a new situation or
object very quickly, it can help us survive. You might, for example, categorize a stray dog on
the street as a potential threat and so avert its path. Not all stray dogs are violent, of course,
but your stereotyping of them in this way could prevent you from unnecessary risk; marking
wild animals as threats in this way is an adaptive means of survival. Should the animal be sick
or hungry or scared, it might bite you even if unprovoked, which could lead to serious injuries
or life-threatening disease if left untreated. In this way, stereotypes can help us navigate
our world more quickly, easily, and at times more safely. However, stereotypes can also be
extremely damaging when we apply them to people. That is because we rapidly categorize
someone as belonging to a category rather than getting to know the person as an individual.
It’s one thing to wrongly stereotype a stray dog; it’s another to wrongly stereotype a person.
Nevertheless, to sell products, advertisers take advantage of our tendency to stereotype.
One analysis of more than 1,000 magazine ads found that Asian American models tended
to appear in ads for electronics and financial services, but not for other types of products or
services (Taylor, Landreth, & Bang, 2005). Asian Americans also tended to appear in business
settings, but not in social or family settings. By using existing stereotypes, advertisers hope
that the rapid associations that consumers have with certain ethnic groups will carry over
onto evaluations of their product or service.
Consistent with the feelings-as-information theory, cues in the environment can work because
they prime an existing stereotype. Recall that wine shoppers who listened to classical music
bought more expensive wine than when they listened to pop music. This is because the music
was associated in their minds with more refined and expensive products. In a study conducted
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Priming and Stereotypes Section 7.5
at a popular restaurant, however, fewer diners consumed at least three alcoholic beverages
when classical music was played, compared with pop, jazz, and easy listening music (Wilson,
2003). Thus, classical music primed a stereotype that did not match the restaurant and the
type of beverages served, resulting in lower sales.
Likewise, playing romantic songs in a flower shop was associated with higher sales, compared
with pop music and a control condition in which no music was played (Jacob, Guéguen, Boulbry,
& Sami, 2009). Shoppers also spent more time in the shop when romantic music was
playing. This likely was due to the match between romantic music and the flowers-romance
heuristic. In fact, when pop music was playing shoppers spent roughly as much as when no
music was playing. What is more, when pop music played, shoppers spent less time in the store
than when there was no music at all. Think back for a moment to the example we reviewed at
the beginning of the chapter, in which the tempo of music led restaurant patrons to slow down
and order beverages from the bar (Milliman, 1986). In this case, music did not serve to prime
a heuristic, a type of mental content. Instead, the music influenced diners’ mood, and presumably,
their type of mental processing, which then influenced their behavior. So, as you can see,
priming effects can be quite complex.
Persuasion in the Real World: Smells Sell
Marketers know the power of subtle associations in a retail environment, whether it involves
architecture, lighting, music, textures, or scent. Many smells are effective because they have
been associated in our memory with certain experiences. For example, you are likely familiar
with real estate agents’ recommendation that a home seller bake an apple pie or cookies
before an open house. However, marketers have begun to incorporate sensory experiences in
an effort to boost sales or enhance brand associations.
If exposure to a particular scent occurs in connection with exposure to a brand or product,
then over time the pleasant sensation can become linked with the brand in the consumer’s
memory. This is different from the marketing of scents, such as perfumes and candles, in
which the fragrance is the focal object. Sensory marketing involves the use of fragrances and
other ambient factors to enhance a consumer’s interaction with another product. That is,
through spreading activation, the scent prime leads the brand and brand associations to be
more accessible.
Some brands are creating unique scents that are associated with the brand—say, a relaxing
cozy smell in a hotel lobby to welcome guests. Westin, for example, has introduced a
proprietary White Tea fragrance in its lobbies. Westin wants the relaxing floral scent to
become linked with the hotel brand in travelers’ minds. When travelers arrive to check
in at the hotel, they are greeted by the unique refreshing scent. The scent, developed by
ScentAir, has become so popular that it now sells the fragrance via candles, oils, and the
like. See http://www.scentair.com/why-scentair-scent-studies/westin-hotels-resorts/.
The parent company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, has since developed signature scents,
coupled with sound and light, to create a unique arrival experience for each of its upscale
hotel brands.
Incorporating ambient factors such as aromas or lighting is a long way from a traditional
focus on message arguments as the primary means of persuasion. But as researchers and
marketers discover how the mind functions, we can expect many more multisensory efforts
at persuasion and influence.
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Practical Application: False Information Section 7.6
7.6 Practical Application: False Information
Frequent exposure to information increases perceptions of the information’s familiarity. And,
because of the availability heuristic, when something is familiar or easily recalled, we are
more likely to accept it as being true (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). A classic study on wartime
rumors during World War II (Allport & Lepkin, 1945) found that merely repeating a rumor
made it more believable. That is, the more a rumor was repeated, the more likely a person
was to believe it.
However, false information is best left alone. By repeating the false information, even to discredit
it, you run the risk of increasing the information’s acceptance (Schwarz, Sanna, Skurnik,
& Yoon, 2007). This phenomenon is known as the “illusion of truth” effect. This occurs because
the credible source of the information becomes associated with the misinformation itself.
When a persuader describes false information to counter-argue it, the audience tends to forget
some of the details, and over time is more likely to believe the false information.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a flyer to encourage people
to receive a flu vaccination. This flyer featured a common myths-versus-facts format, in which
a popular myth was presented followed by the relevant facts that showed the myth to be
untrue. However, a study revealed that by repeating the myth, the CDC flyer actually increased
the myth’s acceptance (Schwarz et al., 2007).
In the study, participants read a facts-versus-myths flyer or a facts-only flyer. After they read
the flyer, some participants immediately evaluated a list of statements that had been featured
in the flyer and then indicated whether that statement was true or false. Another group evaluated
the list of statements after a 30-minute delay. So, this was a classic 2 (facts versus facts
and myths) × 2 (delay versus no delay) factorial experiment, with a control group in which
participants did not read a flyer before evaluating the statements.
Participants who evaluated the statements immediately after reading the flyer were able to
judge the information accurately. They only labeled 4% of the myths as true and only 3% of
the facts as false, a rate that can be attributed to random errors. People who were asked to
review the statements after a 30-minute delay, however, judged 15% of the myths as true.
Their misjudgment of true facts as being false remained unchanged, remaining about 2%.
In other words, after their memory of the flyer had faded somewhat, they had a harder time
remembering that some of the myths were actually false, and they were more likely to believe
them. This phenomenon can be attributed to a familiarity bias, that is, the more familiar we
are with something and the more easily it comes to mind, the more likely we are to believe it
is true. In other words, the availability heuristic was at work. Exposure to the myths increased
their accessibility, which made them easier to recall. And because people could recall the
myths more easily, they were more likely to believe them.
The researchers also measured participants’ attitudes toward the vaccination and their
behavioral intention, that is, their intent to get vaccinated against the flu. Reading a facts-only
flyer led to a more favorable attitude toward the flu vaccine and increased their intention to
get vaccinated against the flu, compared with participants in a control condition who had
not read a flyer. The same pattern was observed for people who had been in a 30-minute
delay condition. That is, even after 30 minutes, when some of the details at faded from memory,
people were still more likely to get vaccinated and had a more favorable attitude toward
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Summary and Resources
the flu vaccine. However, for the facts-and-myths flyer, a 30-minute delay actually led to less
favorable attitudes toward the flu vaccine and lower behavioral intentions, compared with
people in the control condition who did not read a flyer.
What is worse, when a highly credible source repeats the false information, over time the
falsehood is attributed to the credible source, even though the information is false (Schwarz
et al., 2007). So, it is best not to repeat false information, even if the purpose is to refute the
information. The best way to counter false information is just to state the truth, and to repeat
it frequently. By repeating the misinformation, you increase people’s familiarity with it, making
them more likely to believe it.
Summary and Resources
Summary
• Primes, whether they are subliminal or supraliminal, can influence people’s attitudes
and behaviors. Many of these primes are present in the context in which the
intended influence occurs, such as scents, music, color, and so on. Other primes can
be tied to the product or the person who is seeking to influence someone.
• Because primes tend to bypass the conscious involvement of a target’s free will,
priming is more properly a form of influence, and not persuasion.
• Primes tend to work through the spreading activation of associated ideas. Once one
idea is primed, then other related ideas also become more accessible, leading them
to shape the way someone responds to an influence attempt, whether it is an ad, a
shopping trip, a hotel check-in, or a dining experience, and so on.
• Primes only work, however, when a goal is already present. Also, they tend to be
effective only when the prime is related to an existing network of beliefs and attitudes.
Further, if someone becomes aware of the prime, that person can correct for it
easily, and its influence vanishes.
• Several theories are emerging to help make sense of priming phenomena and
nonconscious thinking. Embodied cognition suggests that the physical sensations
that a person experiences can influence that person’s thoughts and behaviors. The
feelings-as-information theory maintains that affect (i.e., mood and emotion) can
influence what a person thinks. Unconscious thought theory proposes that nonconscious
thinking is better than conscious thought when it comes to organizing and
evaluating complex information.
• Some primes might work because they activate a stereotype that a person can apply in
a specific situation. Of course, the prime would only work among people who hold that
stereotype. We saw that the effect of music on purchasing behavior depended on the
stereotype associated with the music and the context in which the music was played.
• Given the novelty and complexity of priming phenomena and the ways they are
tested, the field of priming research has seen its share of controversy. Nevertheless,
primes remain an important means of guiding attitudes and behavior, with important
implications for the study of persuasion and social influence.
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Summary and Resources
Questions for Reflection and Application
1. Is exerting influence through priming a form of persuasion? Why or why not?
2. What is a stereotype?
3. Find 10 magazine ads that feature models and identify the stereotypes that the
advertisers used. What do you think was the intended effect?
4. Visit a department store or other retail outlet. Describe the environment in terms of
lighting, textures, smells, and so on. How much of it do you think was designed with
the intent to influence consumers?
5. Think back to the discussion of ethics in Chapter 3. Then, choose one of the phenomena
described in this chapter and evaluate it in terms of its ethicality.
Key Terms
embodied cognition A phenomenon in
which something you feel in your body can
influence what you think.
excitation transfer A phenomenon in
which what a person feels can influence that
person’s attitude toward an object, as those
feelings transfer to the object; also called
misattribution.
feelings-as-information theory A perspective
in which affective states are used as
an input into what a person thinks; how that
person feels becomes a piece of information
that the mind uses to evaluate something.
lexical prime Words used as primes.
mental content What a person thinks.
mental process How a person thinks.
misattribution A phenomenon in which
feelings that arise from one cause can
influence unknowingly how a person feels
about an unrelated object; also called excitation
transfer.
priming A phenomenon in which a person
is exposed to an external stimulus, either
consciously or not, and this exposure subsequently
influences how the person responds
to altogether different stimuli or behaves in
a different context.
spreading activation A phenomenon in
which activating the accessibility of one idea
also increases the accessibility of other ideas
that are in the same network of associations.
stereotype A category that people apply
quickly and effortlessly to something they
encounter.
subliminal prime A prime that occurs
below a person’s conscious awareness.
supraliminal prime A prime that a person
is aware of.
unconscious thought theory A perspective
in which people’s minds are constantly
evaluating information in the background,
leading to “intuitive” judgments that can be
as accurate and well reasoned as judgments
arrived at via effortful reasoning.
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