Priming

QUOTE

H.M. Tomlinson once said…

“We see things not as they are, but as we are.”

(British writer and journalist)

CONCEPT

Priming

Priming is a psychological phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences how we respond to a subsequent stimulus, often without our conscious awareness.

It works by activating certain mental pathways or concepts in our minds, making them more accessible and thus more likely to affect our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

STORY

Fifty Years … in an Afternoon?

In the mid-1990s, psychologist John Bargh and his colleagues at New York University conducted a series of experiments that would become classics in social psychology, highlighting just how powerfully priming could guide human behavior.

Their most famous study involved what came to be known as the “Elderly” or “Florida Effect.”

In one version of the experiment, participants were given a scrambled-sentence task—lists of words that they had to rearrange into coherent sentences. Some participants received words like “bingo,” “Florida,” “wrinkle,” and “bald,” all subtly hinting at stereotypes of old age.

The control group, meanwhile, received a completely different set of words, unrelated to the elderly stereotype.

Once participants had finished the word task, the researchers thanked them for their time and directed them to leave down a hallway. Hidden cameras recorded the speed at which they walked. To the astonishment of many, participants primed with elderly-related words walked significantly more slowly than those who had not been exposed to the words.

Their minds, influenced by the subtle activation of the “old age” concept, seemed to nudge them into matching the behavior stereotypically associated with senior citizens.

Despite the participants never recalling any mention of the word “slow” or similar terms, the mere hint of old age was enough to alter how they moved. What made the findings even more striking was that the participants were typically young college students—the last group you’d expect to adopt a slower gait. Moreover, when asked about the experiment afterward, nearly all were unaware that they had been exposed to elderly-related words in a way that would affect their behavior.

The drama lay in realizing how easily our minds can be steered by unseen influences. The study soon found its way into textbooks and the public consciousness, sparking discussions about free will, unconscious bias, and even self-fulfilling stereotypes.

Bargh’s experiment reminds us that priming isn’t a rare or isolated quirk of psychology—it’s part of our everyday reality.

Advertisements, conversations, and even casual remarks can all act as primes, shaping our interpretations without our explicit knowledge. Understanding this phenomenon encourages us to look more carefully at our surroundings, question our snap judgments, and make more intentional choices about how we interact with the world.