Blog Post 1 Priming

   Lecture one was on ways of thinking.  The one I found most interesting was Priming. I found it pretty interesting how what we are thinking about or reading about can affect how we interpret or do something or how someone stating a few words can control the way people think.  Priming works when just our conscious and subconscious are exposed to an idea and with that we think about an associated idea without ever really knowing it.  It also works when we are given a direction to follow and affects how we think or interpret questions.

Some examples in the text were how when given a group of letters with one missing you will guess different words depending on what you are thinking about or if you are reading about older people our brains are stimulated to walk slower. The text also suggested that if you are told to walk slowly you can answer questions about older people or aging more easily. They also said that a smiling person laughs more easily at a joke and a frowning person is more easily upset by a disturbing picture.

I think priming is crazy because these small influences can change a person in such a big way.  Just one thought and one word can change your whole perspective and how you act.  People are not even aware of these changes, either things like judgement and attitude all change without the person ever knowing all because of a thought, a word, or some other small influence.  I definitely can see how this can happen though, sometimes when I watch a show about Southern States or other cultures I can see how I may move or act or think differently afterwards.