What is behavioral priming and how does it work?
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In priming, you develop subconscious associations. So let’s say I have 3 flashcards, on them is written Car, Truck, and Flower
I show you each card *very briefly* and measure how long it takes you to recognize each word.
If I go in the order Flower > Truck, lets say it takes you a certain amount of time to recognize the word Truck
Now I go in the order Car > Truck, and you recognize the Truck card significantly faster than before
This is because by showing you the Car card, I’ve “primed” your brain to get into a state of “okay we’re identifying vehicles” so when you see the Truck card you immediately recognize that as a vehicle.
On the other hand, by showing you the Flower card I’ve primed your brain to get into a state of “okay we’re identifying plants” so the Truck card comes as a surprise and it takes you a second to realize that we’re not in fact identifying plants and then go ahead and recognize what the card actually says
So priming is essentially when your brain wants to think in terms of categories, and specifically tries to interpret the second clue (Truck) in the context of being a part of the same category as the first clue (Car).
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