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Chapter3-SocialBeliefsandJudgmentsPart3-Priming.pptxChapter 3
Social Beliefs & Judgments
Part 3 (Priming Mechanisms in Social Judgments)
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Part Three
Priming Mechanisms In Social Thinking
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What Would Her Father Think?
A 16-year-old girl utters the following line:
“I can hardly wait for tonight – I’m so excited. I’ve never played with Tommy before. I love his technique. If he tries hard, I know he can go all the way. Tommy has wonderful stuff.”
What would her father think!
Come on, she’s obviously talking about a baseball game!
This is a double entendre, a priming technique often used in sitcoms. But what, exactly, is priming?
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Context and Priming in Social Cognition
Priming
We often interpret our world based on what we are currently thinking about (such as topics and ideas we’ve recently heard or discussed), as well as the beliefs and categories that we use to make sense of things
Such thoughts color out interpretations of new information
On the next slide, I want you to keep this phrase in mind … “Behold the Ravages of Old Age”
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Priming
Priming
“Behold The Ravages Of Old Age!”
Did you see the old woman in this profile, or a picture of a young lady?
Actually, both young and old woman can be seen!
Since I primed you with the “ravages of old age” sentence, you may have been primed to first see the old woman first!
Still don’t see both? Okay!
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The young woman, looking away
Her ear
Her nose
The old woman
Her eye
Her mouth
Chin
Chin
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Priming
Priming
Imagine you are in a study by Bargh
On the next slide, unscramble the words according to your birth date (born on an odd date versus born on an even date)
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Born on an Odd Date (9/7) – Unscramble :
isburdt
wopre
ptrertinu
nedruti
Born on an Even Date (9/8) – Unscramble :
llopwsi
wopre
mpcotreu
pstaerl
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Born on an Odd Date (9/7) – Unscrambled :
isburdt = disturb
wopre = power
ptrertinu = interrupt
nedruti = intrude
Born on an Even Date (9/8) – Unscrambled :
llopwsi = pillows
wopre = power
mpcotreu = computer
pstaerl = stapler
Now for the Answers – Do you get them right?
If you completed the top four words (odd date),
then you might have been primed to be a rude person!
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Priming Studies
Priming – Bargh (1996)
Participants unscrambled words on a survey
Two word categories …
Rude words (intrude, etc.)
Neutral words (pillows, etc.)
They were told to inform the experimenter as soon as they finished their, but when they went to tell him, the researcher was busy talking to someone else
Results: Those primed with the rude words were much more likely to interrupt the experimenter’s conversation!
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Priming Studies
Priming – Another Bargh study …
In another study, participants primed with “elderly stereotype words” (Florida, retirement) walked away from the experiment at a slower pace than participants given “neutral words” (like pillow) to unscramble.
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Priming Studies
Priming
Heath (1991)
Medical personnel primed to think about HIV risks at work subsequently felt they were more at risk.
Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder (1987)
Edited the news so that participants received a big dose of one specific topic (weakness of the US defenses, pollution concerns, inflation/economic concerns).
Participants later said the most important issue facing the country was the topic with which they’d been primed
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As you can see, we are influenced by a variety of factors that can alter how we respond to social stimuli
For a very interesting, funny, and required video on priming where a psychologist turns the tables on advertisers involving taxidermy, make sure to look at the supplemental materials
In our next section (Part 4), we are going to focus on judgments that we make using automatic processes. That is, we look at …
Heuristics
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