How You Can Prompt Us to Feel or Do Something

What are ways we are "primed" or influenced towards one action than another?

Written May 27, 2008, read 357 times since then.

This persusion technique probably won’t work on hormonally-hit teenagers (sorry weary parents) yet you could try it on spouses, co-workers or customers. Suppose, for example, you’re tired of the dirty cups in the office coffee nook. Try spraying the air with a lemony scent reminiscent of a cleaning agent. When those sloppy colleagues smell it they are more likely to tidy up. That’s what several psychologists have discovered, including Jonathan Haidt, Henk Aarts, Aaron Kay and John A. Bargh.

It’s called priming. We are unaware of it happening to us. It affects your attention, memories, performance and relationships. It is prompting one towards something, for example taking a certain action, such as cleaning up the nook, or holding a certain opinion. As Yale students who’d volunteered to be part of a study were sent, one-by-one, down a hallway to the study they passed a lab assistant in the hallway.

As the assistant’s hands were full, holding a clipboard, textbooks, papers and a cup of either hot or iced coffee, he asked each student for a hand with the cup. A few minutes later the students read about a fictional person then ranked that individual on a range from warm, thoughtful and social to cold, selfish and less social. You guessed it. Those who’d held the cup of hot coffee were more likely to rank that individual more positively than the students who’d held the iced java. They were “primed” to do so. Bargh and Robert Wyer relate this effect to “the automaticity of everyday life.” As you’ve anticipated, priming can prompt “good” and “bad” behavior.

In other priming experiences those who briefly saw words like “support” or “dependable” acted morecooperatively. Those who saw a briefcase during the experiment became more competitive. From what we touch, smell or see, it takes only small sensory cues, it seems to influence our behavior.

Priming is most effective when it is done in the same sensory mode as the original experience. For example, along the back of the yard of my grandmother’s modest home ran an abandoned railway track. The wood that supported the iron tracks was soaked with creosote. Even today, whenever I get even a faint whift of that acrid smell I smile with the memory of many happy times sitting in the kitchen, talking with Grandma.

How are you being primed to feel, act or buy? I have a Las Vegas hotel client that increased per-guest spending and positive views of the hotel’s quality, staff service – even staff attractiveness – all evoked by one sensory change. From check-in to gaming areas and hallways, the hotelier wafts the scent of sunscreen lotion. (“Hey honey, we’re on vacation, the world looks good and we’re going to play.”)

• What’s on your walls at home to prime your family to feel secure, happy and, well, at home? Or behind you as you sit at your office? What do others repeatedly touch, smell or hear when around you? Do you like to effect those sensory cues evoke?

• What do you share, give away or show others with whom you want to feel closer?

• How can you cultivate closeness and positive memories by special, repeated rituals, foods or ceremonies?

• Just before friends or clients meet with you, what are they likely to smell, see, hear or touch and how will those experiences affect how they feel about you and what you talk about? Relatedly, see how to storyboard the sequence of sensory moments others have at your conference or people-serving place.

Learn more about the author, Kare Anderson.

Comment on this article

Posted by John Kahl, Portland, Oregon | May 28, 2008

Wow ! Scents are powerful. My grandfather's workshop had a musty smell of leather, that provides an image every time I smell the leather, even though the original was 60 years ago.

Now that I'm conscious of the power of past scents, I remember the times fresh bread scent wafting from a Bakery led me to wander into the store for something like sticky buns, bread, dinner rolls etc.

Next I'd like to think about what lovely odors will attract my 3 teen agers to wait for dinner, rather than rush in after school and fill up on junk.

Even if you think this won't work, any suggestions anyway? John
Posted by Kare Anderson, Sausalito, California | May 28, 2008

John golly you got me on that one. You may have better work in getting them to graze on healthier/tasty stuff between meals.... remember when you were that age? what did you eat? and I, too love that smell of musty leather.. and pikiki from an early trip to hawaii. and ... ah
Posted by mark waldin, Seattle, Washington | May 29, 2008

Kare,

Really interesting. It would be very powerful to have a glossary of tried and true visuals, sounds, and smells that evoke certain feelings. Would be a great cheat sheet. Maybe it would even be a business...selling the solutions on the Web! Don't suppose you know of a list?
Posted by Kare Anderson, Sausalito, California | May 29, 2008

Nope, If i did I'd be so rich as to have formed my fifth philanthropic foundation.

Smell is an early imprint - so unique to each of us, yet the most directly emotional sense. AromaSys is a firm (owned by my friends) that actually improves in door air quality (no allergic reactions) as it wafts custom scents into hotels, hospitals (guess which of these past two sectors were the earlier adopters and easiest to work for (like paid on time).... stores, etc.

Also see best research on scent of from the Monel institute in Phil.

Presentation Zen is my favorite new book on visuals for presentations yet many of the ideas carry over to use of visuals in other spaces. ... now let me stop for now
Posted by Judy Dunn, Seattle & Renton, Washington | May 30, 2008

Such an interesting article, Kare, and just what I've come to expect from you. Where in the world do you come up with your ideas?

This whole issue of how the senses can prime people to feel and act is fascinating.

Even now the smell of new crayons (one of my most favorite scents) evokes the memory of my kindergarten year (remember those great big thick crayons they gave you in that flat square Crayola box, just eight colors, and you colored the orange pumpkins and pictures of Christmas trees until the crayons were worn down to nubbins?). And then, later, when I taught first grade, that smell encapsulated the first day of school, when everything was brand spanking new and those six-year-olds were sitting at their desks, so sweet and full of promise.

As a teacher, I often wondered why we couldn't harness the power of smell to teach kids their letters, consonant and vowel sounds, even to teach them to read.

But then I thought, what if some poor kid had a bad cold or sinus infection and lost their sense of smell? But I digress.

Another thought-provoking article, Kare. Great job.
Posted by Kare Anderson, Sausalito, California | May 30, 2008

Oh do I remember those Crayola's (such branding, eh?) Judy and I loved the scent so much that when they taught us to use them to create a picture with them, then color over with black, then use a paper clip to "etch" through the black in another pattern I was in heaven.... and the scent "made me" make this a run-on scentence (with a bad pun at the end)....

then there is melting crayons on swatches of clothe to then hold up to the light... but I do go on and this not a craft-centered blog post yet you did "prime" me for some past memories

.(. going to get some crayons this weekend?) K
Posted by H. Lee Travis, Seattle Bellevue Tacoma, Washington | Jun 01, 2008

Understanding that we all create unique, personal worlds through the constructs of our 5 senses and establish our core beliefs around the time we’re toddlers; it is no wonder at all that those stimuli so easily snap into view your wonderful conversations with Grandma or Judy’s pumpkins and Xmas trees.

But these techniques and others like Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a term coined by Bandler and Grinder in the 70’s have long been used – for millennia actually – consciously or unconsciously to manipulate others by tribal leaders, mystics, sages, shaman and sovereigns.

Knowing that the human kind is susceptible to being categorized into “types” like Auditory, Visual or Kinetic among others. Then simply harmonizing with those characteristics and dancing, so to speak . . . then leading . . . then influencing in the direction in which we desire. And finally, closing the deal.

Now that is just using language. What you were discussing is far more subtle and almost subliminal. Using the senses on the unsuspecting public/market is more than “priming”, it is baiting. In many cases it is like placing a narcotic in front of an addict. They can hardly help themselves.

But all is fair in love, war and Wall Street. And isn’t “priming” something women have been doing from the dawn of time?

Nice article.

~ Lee

Poker Coach
Posted by Kare Anderson, Sausalito, California | Jun 02, 2008

Yeo we are all priming each other, mostly unconsciously and out of habit yet it is a facinating path to become more conscious. with fMRI, etc. we have discovered more than ever contemplated by Bandler and Grinder... read book by Norman Doige for example....

bet you have some great tips on tells Lee
Posted by H. Lee Travis, Seattle Bellevue Tacoma, Washington | Jun 02, 2008

Precisely.

I love the approach by, Genie Z. Laborde, Influencing with Integrity.

Yes and No . . . regarding "tells".

A player can spend/squander a great deal of time looking for eye flutter or muscle twitches when the clues are right there, ever present in opponet's betting pattern. However, my entire coaching approach is founded on Sun Tzu and the Art of War; and the general statement that came from that treatise is that War is deception.

Taking that “art of . . .” and Strategy into business (and poker): in the initial phases of tournaments I instruct to only play 95%-97% of the hands; thus making “no-play” a play. Many neo-players complain that they desire action and would be bored, but here-in is where the difference between the novice and the next level player lies. The more advanced player is able to gain information from those players in action during these times while the energy in the tournament is still very high and the players are most liable to expose their truest weaknesses. These are the players you seek to advance against.

In Business, the same Strategy could/should be applied in that information is gathered regarding the niche market and, as you aptly inferred in your article, are primed for various elements of marketing. Whether it is the use of sight (whether copy or pictorial), sound, taste or smell; the senses are employed in opening the doors to the individual’s world and then the offers are made.

It’s all about information and how to use it.

~ Lee

Poker Coach