Priming: it is the psychology behind positive affirmations and also a great tool in marketing. However, its less beautiful side can cause a lot of anxiety. Unconscious behavioral influence makes you look at the world with a certain frame. Which frame do you choose?
How impressionable are you?
The master of priming
We are all - literally everywhere - constantly being primed: by the news, advertisements and the environment in which you find yourself. It's about influencing one's behavior with unconscious subtle cues - linguistic and visual - and causes you to think in a certain direction. The people who shout the loudest that they are uninfluenced often turn out to be the playthings of it, because they don't even want to recognize their blind spot. When you are conscious, you can better resist and break through an impeding priming.
The power of repetition
Priming can be reinforced by repeating signals. "The power of repetition" is a term popular with educators and marketers for good reason. Social priming is the influence you unconsciously receive from your environment. As a child, you were continually influenced by your parents. Can you imagine what happens when signals are repeated in this context?
White doctor coat or become a father
Perhaps the best-known form is the placebo effect. A drug has the potential to work beforehand because the patient is eager to get better and the drug presumably contains the right active ingredients. The primed item is endorsed when the drug is named "painkiller" (language) and given by someone wearing a white doctor's coat (visual signal). Priming is also when you suddenly start behaving differently when you become a father or mother, because somewhere in your long-term memory you make the connection that a parent displays certain behaviors. Maybe you suddenly stop swearing :-)
Conscious priming in the morning
If one word or one stereotype has that much effect on you, can you imagine how you start your morning having an effect on the rest of your day? A vehement headline from the Telegraph or a loving gratitude meditation can make a miraculous difference in how you go about your day.
Want more positivity? Make sure you always start your morning with something like:
- Intention messages on your mirror
- Writing down gratitude
- Inspiring podcasts, like the one by Edwin Selij;-)
Then you can always do that news roundup afterwards, because positive priming is doing its job from now on!
