“Priming” in psychology refers to how subjects in an experiment can be prepared now to respond later. People who want to influence your way of thinking understand the principle of priming.
In an experiment I ran a few years ago, subjects read either a positive or negative news story. They were then asked to recite a list of memorized words. Those who were primed with the positive story recalled more positive words and those primed with the negative recalled more negative words.
So how could priming have affected your current attitudes? What opinions do you have simply because someone else wants you to have them?
Action – Next time you hear yourself say “I believe X”, test that statement. Do you truly believe it? How did you arrive at that belief?
When we understand where our beliefs have come from, we give ourselves the power to change our responses.
Hello Nancy and thank you for yours shorts storydays and coaching vision.
Is that the way for the free will ? maybe, but maybe we just have to appreciate the difference between to beleive and to know whitout trampling our creativity and remaining humble… Maybe that’s another story.
Best regards
Alain
The key about any piece of knowledge or some belief is that we test it in our own mind from time to time. Our brains are busy and we tend to form habits – of behavior and of thought. But sometimes those thoughts and behaviors are no longer applicable. When we ‘check in’ frequently enough, we can compare the habit to our current world view to see what’s working, what’s no longer working and what we might want to do about it.
Thanks for your comments Alain!
Nancy
Nancy,
Thank you for your reply, i’m agree with this long and but not so easy way of thinking…
Alain
Very good. I find myself believing, and therefore, repeating things I heard for years from my parents, such as: “God helps those who help themselves.” I said this one day in church, and the look and response I received was somewhat surprising. I was asked the question: “Where does it say THAT in the Bible?” Thus making me realize that I simply heard it and believed it without ever investigating it. I’m not going off on a religious tangent, but simply posting this very good example of checking yourself. Ever since then, I find myself keeping my mind open to the fact that my ‘belief’ system may have been influenced. It is very eye-opening.
Your insight and self awareness has no doubt served you really well.
We should also remember this when we read news stories or poll results. What we read may have already been framed by the reporter or pollster by what was said before the question was asked or by the name of the company that is having the poll done.
Everything you think, as well as what you read or hear is biased.
The “checking in” is something I really struggle with. I know I would benefit greatly from re-examining my thoughts more often, I just get wrapped up in the daily routine too much. Thanks for your daily reminders, they snap me out of the routine, even if it is just for one minute.