Primed concepts unconsciously increase matching behaviors such as walking slowly or interrupting

Evidence

In one classic study, for example, young participants were unconsciously primed with an “elderly” stereotype (words such as Bingo, Florida, retirement). Then researchers covertly observed the participants leaving the lab. Participants who thought of the elderly stereotype walked more slowly than those who were exposed to neutral words! In another study, priming “rudeness” (rude, impolite, impatient), again without conscious awareness, increased the likelihood that participants would interrupt a conversation. … This account therefore says that perhaps nonconscious altruistic thoughts increase prosocial behavior because thoughts of God are associated with notions of benevolence, charity, and honesty, and therefore activating these thoughts automatically activates behaviors consistent with these prosocial thoughts. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 158

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Human slowness in these games reflects effortful inhibition of automatic imitation — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 100; Awareness of prior influence marks the boundary separating implicit cognition from priming effects — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 40; The Stroop test convinces training audiences that unconscious processes override conscious intent (+5 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Human slowness in these games reflects effortful inhibition of automatic imitation — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 100; Awareness of prior influence marks the boundary separating implicit cognition from priming effects — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 40; The Stroop test convinces training audiences that unconscious processes override conscious intent (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Unconsciously primed concepts trigger corresponding behaviors in people #corroborates (0.97)
• Unconscious primes trigger corresponding behaviors, as in elderly and rudeness studies #exemplifies (0.95)