Priming is a psychological term used for the act of the shaping opinions of others through advertising to include, visual, audible, and olfactory input. Restaurants do by using certain color schemes for their logos. It has been shown through research that red, yellow, orange, or green actually make you hungry.  Have you noticed how many companies use those colors in their logos? Certain sounds also stimulate behaviors. The sound of sizzling bacon (as well as the smell) can trigger hunger to most. The smell of cleansers will give people a false sense of cleanliness – and many places use them to shape customer’s perceptions.

Priming is used these days not only in advertising, but also in the news, music, and in social media. It’s a proven fact that priming has a significant impact on behaviors. Study after study has shown that if you read negative news, read negative social media, and listen to negative music it has an effect. The more we feed our cognitive bias – the more we tend to reinforce our bias.

We must be aware how priming is being used to shape opinions, needs, wants, and values. Even now we see how certain symbols are being used by the media to shape attitudes, opinions, and facts, to the way they want – regardless of the fact there is another side to all these stories. The purpose of this post is to open your eyes to the influences around you.  Here are a couple of links that will help you further understand sensory priming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUuY6_g_qU

https://www.marketingsociety.com/the-library/hidden-potential-sensory-priming#xcsLZzdkZPBDjYuU.97