230 Understanding Intuitive Decision Making
Priming Effects: The Power of Subtle Infl uences
In addition to being activated by framing techniques and the role the audience or speaker plays
in a situation, schemata and their components can be primed—brought to mind or activated—in
a number of different and sometimes subtle ways. For example, the mere presence of a TV can
prime a schema consistent with television content and evoke audience perceptions of violence and
crime.^260 Words related to the elderly stereotype (e.g., traditional, retired ) prime young people to
walk more slowly than normal. The concept of rudeness primes listeners to interrupt speakers more
quickly and more frequently than the concept of politeness.^261 A heart shape on donation boxes
primes people who encounter the boxes to contribute more to humanitarian projects than a round
or square shape.^262 Reading one passage of text primes readers to prefer related passages; viewing
one product primes consumers to prefer similar products.^263
Background designs and templates in presentation slides can serve as another subtle prime. Ina study of website design, the background design of an e-commerce website was manipulated to
prime either product quality attributes (e.g., safety for cars, comfort for couches) or price. The
prime affected the choices of both novices and experts in the product class.^264 Note, too, how the
background template of the intuitively appealing slide presentation shown earlier in this chapter
(p. 218) primes a preference for the wind-generated power alternative, whereas the background
template of the more purely rational slide presentation with its symbol of the atom (p. 217) may
unintentionally prime fears of radioactive fallout.
Priming can have a powerful effect on consumers’ decisions. Priming the schema for a productcategory can change consumers’ choices.^265 A study of background music played in a store selling
both German and French wines found that background music from a wine’s country of origin
increased sales of wines from that country.^266 Priming a product attribute can increase the weight
consumers give that attribute.^267 Questions that prime intentions, such as “Do you intend to buy
a personal computer in the next six months?” infl uence purchase decisions by making consumers’
attitudes about products in the category more accessible to them.^268 Remarkably, the effect can last
up to a year.^269
Priming can also determine how heavily voters will weight the criteria they use to evaluatepublic offi cials.^270 For example, if last week’s news stories focused on environmental issues, then
voters will weight environmental criteria more heavily in their evaluation of public offi cials. On
the other hand, if last week’s news stories focused on defense issues, then voters will weight defense
criteria more heavily.
Priming can even determine whether voters support politically conservative or liberal poli-cies. In a two-part study, college students were primed to view success in life as dependent either
on one’s personal merit or on good fortune. In Study 1, the students were asked to explain
their academic success by focusing either on the role of hard work, self-discipline, and wise
decision-making (the personal merit prime) or on the role of chance, opportunity, and help
from others (the good fortune prime). In Study 2, questionnaire items served as the personal
merit versus good fortune primes. In both studies, students given the good fortune prime sub-
sequently indicated more support for liberal policies than those given the personal merit prime.
Why? Because the personal merit prime activated a conservative political schema, whereas the good
fortune prime activated a liberal one.^271
Priming also makes it easier for audiences to form certain kinds of impressions of other peo-ple.^272 In a study of the priming effects of pretrial publicity, mock jurors were asked to render
verdicts both before and after viewing an edited video recording of an actual trial. Jurors’ ver-
dicts were signifi cantly affected by pretrial publicity, especially negative pretrial publicity about the
defendant’s character, even when they heard the trial evidence prior to viewing the publicity.^273