{"id":17097,"date":"2013-03-08T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T20:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?page_id=17097"},"modified":"2019-04-23T14:43:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T21:43:05","slug":"priming","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/priming\/","title":{"rendered":"Priming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/young-boy-plays-video-game.jpg\" alt=\"young-boy-plays-video-game\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" data-id=\"21283\" title=\"\"><\/strong><\/span><strong>Priming<\/strong> is a cognitive process that occurs when exposure to one stimulus alters a person or animal&#8217;s reaction to a later stimulus.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Priming?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Priming occurs whenever exposure to one thing can later alter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/behavior\">behavior<\/a> or thoughts. For example, if a child sees a bag of candy next to a red bench, they might begin looking for or thinking about candy the next time they see a bench.<\/p>\n<p>Several schools of thought in psychology use the concept of priming. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Priming for abuse.<\/strong> This kind of priming, also sometimes referred to as grooming, occurs when a would-be abuser gradually gains the trust of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/learn-about-therapy\/issues\/abuse\">abuse<\/a> victim. This enables the abuser to do things that, were it not for the initial priming, the victim might never tolerate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Priming in media.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/media-psychology\">Media psychology<\/a> refers to priming as the tendency of one thought to activate another thought. This concept is commonly used by critics of media violence. One example of such priming is when a child playing a violent video game has violent thoughts they might not otherwise have.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Priming in memory.<\/strong> Priming is a form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/implicit-memory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">implicit memory<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u201da memory associated with some other stimulus. Because the memory is implicit, a person may not be consciously aware either that they have been primed or why they are engaging in a particular behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>The Psychology of Priming<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Priming is not necessarily negative or positive, and not all people are equally susceptible to priming. Instead, the effects of priming depend upon what a person is being primed for. Many psychologists believe that priming plays a significant role in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/stereotype\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stereotyping<\/a>, negative attitudes toward minority groups, and implicit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/learn-about-therapy\/issues\/prejudice-discrimination\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">prejudices<\/a>. The Implicit Association Test is a test that uses some theories of priming to test for implicit negative attitudes toward minority groups that may be due to priming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Oliver, C. J., Watson, D. G., Gannon, T. A., &amp; Beech, A. R. (2008). The effect of sexual priming cues on emotional recognition in nonviolent child sexual abusers: A preliminary study.\u00c2\u00a0<em>International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology<\/em>, 53(3), 292-304. doi: 10.1177\/0306624X08317214<\/li>\n<li>Rudman, L. A., Ashmore, R. D., &amp; Gary, M. L. (2001). &#8220;Unlearning&#8221; automatic biases: The malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology<\/em>, 81(5), 856-868. doi: 10.1037\/\/0022-3514.81.5.856<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Priming is a cognitive process that occurs when exposure to one stimulus alters a person or animal&#8217;s reaction to a later stimulus. What is Priming? Priming occurs whenever exposure to one thing can later alter behavior or thoughts. For example, if a child sees a bag of candy next to a red bench, they might [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2474,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"psychpedia.php","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17097","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}