Positive Priming

Whether we know it or not, we are psychologically predisposed by things in our environment to respond in particular ways. This tendency is described as a set of “priming” effects. Words, images, sounds, smells or textures can set us up to perceive and behave in predictable ways. And we will not, for the most part, be aware of the ways we are being shaped and influenced by these external inputs.

Many psychologists point to the seminal experiment carried out a number of years ago by John Bargh, Mark Chen, and Lara Burrows. Their paper has the less-than-spellbinding title, “Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action.”[1] But their results were anything but a yawner. Test subjects were asked to compile four-word sentences from a set of five unrelated words. The control group of subjects had randomly selected words. The test group had lists that included words one might connect with being old. The test list included words like “Florida,” “forgetful,” and “gray.”

Subjects completed the sentences. Then they were sent to another room, ostensibly to take another test. Now the real testing took place. Bargh and his colleagues carefully measured the speed at which the subjects walked down the hall from one room to the other. “The main hypothesis,” wrote the experimenters, “was that participants who had been primed with the elderly stereotype would walk more slowly compared to participants who had not been primed with the stereotype-relevant stimuli.” And this is precisely what happened. On average, the primed participants walked down the hallway fifteen percent slower than the members of the control group. Only one out of the twenty test subjects made any conscious connection between the lists of words and the idea of being elderly.

The result of this experiment has become known as the “Florida effect.” Daniel Kahneman assesses it this way. “First, the set of words primes thoughts of old age, though the word old is never mentioned…” Emotional priming happens almost completely below the level of conscious awareness. It is one of those things that happens to us unawares. If we are questioned about it, we will come up with an explanation that we find satisfactory, but that explanation will likely have nothing to do with the actual priming experience. And then, as Kahneman explains, “those thoughts prime a behavior, walking slowly, which is associated with old age.”[2]

I describe the Florida effect as a way to walk us into the idea of priming as a stewardship practice. We can set the mood and attention of our community in subtle but consistent ways if we are aware of priming and adept at its use. Many leaders are masters of priming without being aware of what they are doing. Emotions and moods really are contagious. A smiling and pleasant leader can tip the mood of a group into the positive zone with little apparent effort. A sullen and serious leader can slide the mood of a group into the negative zone with equally little apparent effort.

We stewardship leaders can do something as simple as an audit of the words we use in group situations. How many positive, happy, constructive words and phrases do we use in making announcements, in a class, a sermon, or an article? And what is the ratio of those positive primes to the less positive things we may say in those same settings? Many researchers suggest that we need somewhere between three and five positive inputs to counterbalance every negative input. What is the ratio for your average public conversation? Ask someone else to do that audit for you periodically if you are concerned about being too easy (or too hard) on yourself.

Now I need to deliver a small professional homily. I am troubled by the affective lives of many clergy leaders in Christian congregations (or at least in my own theological tribe). I observe far too much flat or even negative affect on a regular basis. I hear far too much whining and complaining on the part of folks who really have pretty good jobs and a decent living as pastoral leaders. I observe far too many critical comments and behaviors directed toward congregants and not counterbalanced by anything positive or appreciative. The leadership primes from most pulpits have not only tipped congregations into the negative zone. In fact, those leadership primes have tossed the emotional life of many congregations over a cliff and into the Slough of Despond.

You might protest at this point. “Of course, I’m negative sometimes,” you might push back. “These are difficult people who are anything but generous. They resist change with every fiber of their being. They complain at the drop of a hat. They gossip and backbite. They are turned inwardly and don’t give two hoots about the world outside of their walls. Who wouldn’t be critical of such folks?”

Friends, I feel your pain. But first, that’s not the only possible story. That is simply your story of the experience. They each have their own stories. And second, will you add to the problem or subtract from it? Leadership negativity doesn’t simply increase the cumulative total of the organization. In fact, leadership affect is logarithmic. By that I mean, your emotional impact as a leader will create a tipping point, one way or another. Even if you operate on the basis of simple self-interest, positive emotional priming will be your rational choice. It’s far more fun to lead a bunch of people who are primed to be happy than it is to lead a herd that are primed to eat one another.

---

[1] A copy of the paper can be found at http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/articles/bargh_chen_burrows_1996.pdf.

[2] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, page 53.