Ever wondered why certain objects, instances, experiences keep reminding you of something which is totally unrelated or irrelevant? A song that reminisces of your cuddly romantic evenings or nightmares if your relation had a decimating fallout. That dress in your closet which would take you to a certain place you traveled. The old car in the garage that ignites a concoction of emotions. A flower that reminds of certain days or endearing relations. Why does this happen?
Science refers to this phenomenon of our mind as the “Associative Memory”. The ability of the brain to learn and remember relationships between unrelated items. The associative memory function is central to the way we look, perceive or comprehend words, objects, people or relationships. It augments our subjective validations and belief system. When we are constantly exposed to a way of life dictated by an external force, that becomes our ultimate truth. We guard and stand by that truth with all our might. For that’s the reality which forms the basis of our being. We are unnerved when we stumble across an alternate viewpoint that does not align with our associative memory. You ultimately sigh, “why does she not understand this?” as we fail to understand the nature of a divergent associative memory that plays a crucial role in forming biases and personal validations.
Do you get Primed?
An offshoot of the associative memory of the brain is the “Priming Effect”. Priming is a function where your exposure to one stimulus influences your response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention. For example, when I mention cats and d__s, you will automatically relate to the blank alphabets and assume the word to be dogs instead of digs or dots. This is because you are accustomed to the phrase, “it’s raining cats and dogs” and both words relate to the semantic of animals. Likewise, if I present a sequence of words – towel, shower, shampoo and leave a blank in so_p, you would immediately relate to the word as soap than soup. If I changed the sequence of words to food, drink, bowl and now mention so_p, you will fill the blank or relate to the word as soup and not soap.
In the above example I have “Primed” your thinking not with the direct word or in an explicit manner, but with a sequence of words which will implicitly lead you to a term that I wish to derive out of you. Isn’t this fascinating!
Now, check this. I need not use a fourth word with a blank and yet form a sequence of words to prime you for a response. I’d ask what’s the word that relates to blue, sky, up and your answer instantly would be clouds. It hardly would be rain or the ozone or any distantly related term in the first go. But if I keep telling you constantly on the depleting oxygen levels, ozone would be the first word you would mention to complete the sequence. Priming can be performed with varied patterns and associations. Rhyming words, semantics, culture, perceptual and conceptual forms are some of the categories which can be Primed.
Priming can be used for varied positive psychological and medical breakthroughs in patients. Worryingly, they are also often used by marketing agencies, business houses, political groups to create a narrative that positions them affably to the audience. This effect creates a tremendous recall when certain brands, leaders are constantly positioned with campaigns and taglines to gain territory in our associative memory function. If I use the words – growth, economic boom, first mover advantage, success to a brand, business or individual constantly through advertising, I will be able to prime you in thinking so. Notwithstanding the truth.
Shakespeare the Psychologist
In a path breaking experiment, scientists demonstrated on how humans perceive morality with the Priming effect. Different groups of participants were asked to recall a good or bad past deed. Immediately, they were asked to fill in the letters of three incomplete words: “W_ _H”, “SH_ _ER” and “S_ _P”. Those who had been asked to recall a bad deed were 60% more responsive with cleansing-related words like “wash”, “shower” and “soap” instead of alternatives such as “wish”, “shaker” or “stop”.
The accuracy of such priming was also observed that participants who recalled a bad deed preferred a hand wash if the act was performed by them with hands and an oral mouth wash, if the act was verbal. This is how localized the impact can be! The act of washing after a bad deed resonates to the character of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play. The character constantly imagined blood stains on her hand after a murder and would not stop from washing her hands. For this the condition in humans is aptly titled, “The Lady Macbeth effect”. Surprisingly, it was also observed that once people washed their hands, they felt much lighter and less guilty of their bad deed than the ones who did not wash or took a cleansing act.
Does this resonate with the absolution humans seek at places of worship when they confess on their sins? Does this impart vigor in conducting immoral acts among humans even when they know it’s wrong? Because they have a hack around morality and righteousness by seeking pardon, is immorality justified? I would leave that as a food for thought.
The Illusion of Semantics
Let us hop on to another experiment to comprehend the associative memory better. Allow me to ask you this question as well, before I narrate what the results were.
According to the bible, how many of each type of animal did Moses bring to the ark?
Take a guess?
Let me tell you that most of the subjects answered as two.
The answer is zero. The answer is so because it wasn’t Moses it was Noah who got the animals onto the ark. The reason subjects pounced onto the answer is because both names refer to biblical figures. Both names are male characters. Both names created miracles in the bible. The shared features of both creates a competition in our minds for recalling the correct name. This function of our memory is thus aptly named as, “The Moses Illusion”. This is what explains why we are terrible at remembering names. Especially when there are multiple individuals with similar personalities.
Such semantic illusions and the nature of our mind is used connivingly by commentators and marketeers to override the deed of one individual by another individual of similar traits or of one product by another product offering similar features.
Lady Macbeth and the Moses illusion are profound theories of how our associative memory can trick us into believing what stands right and what should be rejected for being wrong. We like to believe; we take adequate measures and engage in deep analysis to decide on the choices presented to us. But the decisions are often taken by biased intuitions than any effort of thought. For the primary stance of our brain is to cling on to that which requires less effort. We consequently witness in varied walks of life the cognition of familiarity to be greater than the cognition of truth. The former manifesting through ease and the latter requiring effort. How costly this could turn out for you?
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Interesting,esp.the absolution we seek at shrines
Yes, thanks so much for reading 🙂
Very interesting article! Great title that really sucked me into the reading! 🙂 I was unaware of the concept of “priming” beforehand and now I can definitely see the dangerous tie between that and marketing!
Thanks for taking the time to read 🙂 Glad you liked it.