Imagine that you are working at the Division of Psychology at the University of Newcastle in England. You share a coffee room with your fellow coworkers. Coffee, tea and milk are provided, but you must pay your consumption using an honesty box. Would you be more likely to pay your drink if an image of eyes is staring at you from above the price list? I guess your response is no. You will argue that you are an honest person and nothing will impact your behavior. Certainly not a fake glance! Bateson, nettle and Roberts (2006) conducted this study. They examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box used to collect money for drinks in a university coffee room. People paid nearly three times as much for their drinks when eyes were displayed rather than an image of flowers.
In a study conducted by Josephson (1987) the effect of television violence on boys’ aggression was investigated. Participants in the study, a group of young boys,watched violent or nonviolent TV, and half the groups were later exposed to a cue associated with the violent TV program. They were frustrated either before or after TV viewing. Aggression was measured by naturalistic observation during a game of floor hockey. Prior to the study teachers rated the boys’ aggressiveness. Groups containing more characteristically high-aggressive boys showed higher aggression following violent TV plus the cue than following violent TV alone, which in turn produced more aggression than did the nonviolent TV condition.
Thesetwo studies illustrated two very different types of priming. Priming refers to the effect of a preceding stimulus or event on how we react to a subsequent stimulus. Priming procedures were first used in cognitive psychology to explore the structure and representation of information within network models of memory. Network models of memory assume that information is stored in memory in the form of nodes, and that each node represents a concept. Furthermore, these nodes are connected to related nodes in memory by associative pathways. An additional assumption of network models of memory is that each node has an activation threshold. The node fires if the levels of activation exceed its threshold. When a node fires, it can influence the activation levels of other related nodes. A final assumption of network models of memory is that the activation level of a node will go away over time, making it a short time effect. Research by cognitive and social psychologist has demonstrated that a prime’s effect on a target behavior or thought is related to the intensity of the prime (Gruman, Schneider, &Coutts, 2012).
Cues in our environment are priming our behaviors. This finding can have a practical interest for those designing honesty based system, or wishing to maximize cooperative behaviors. We can also prime our own behavior. Stop reading, and take a look around you. What kind of behaviors is your surrounding priming?
Bateson, M., Nettle, D., & Roberts, G. (2006). Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Biology Letters, 2(3), 412-414. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0509
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles ; London ; New Dehli ; Singapore ; Washington DC ; Melbourne: SAGE.
Josephson, W. L. (1987). Television violence and childrens aggression: Testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(5), 882-890. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.53.5.882