It’s a simple quiz.
What is the missing letter in the parentheses?
Yes, that’s right. ‘A’ goes in and forms the word soap.
‘U’ could also be used to form soup.
But most people watching this video probably thought of soap rather than soup.
No one told you to choose the word soap, but most people think of soap, not soup.
Am I even in control of my own thoughts?????
You would have naturally thought of soap because of the video of the person taking a shower reminded you of the word soap.
This happens without you knowing.
Like this, the stimulus we receive affects our response whether we want it or not.
In psychology, this is called the priming effect.
There is a fascinating study that shows that the nationality of background music influences wine selection.
According to an experiment conducted at a British supermarket, consumers bought more French wine when French music was playing in the background and German wine when German music was playing. However, consumers were not aware that their wine choices had been influenced by the nationality of background music.
Like this, your mind can be influenced without you directly being aware.
There are many instances where we don’t make conscious decisions about the things we think about.
For example, Coca-Cola do not advertise their product after the news.
As you know, the news often reports a lot of serious and negative social events.
Because coke already has a negative image as a soda, viewers who have already seen negative content on the news may feel further deterrence towards the product when they see a Coca-Cola advertisement afterwards.
And that is the reason why you will never be able to see a Coca-Cola advertisement after the news.
Like this, external stimuli can enter our minds and spread like ink in the water.
And so the priming effect is used very frequently in the marketing industry, but we can use it positively in our day to day lives.
So, when you wake up every morning, ask yourself and answer this very question:
What would make today great?
As soon as you start answering this question, your mind already begins to be positively primed to set you off to a positive start to the day.