Replicable effects of primes on human behavior.
[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online inJournal of Experimental Psychology: Generalon Oct 31 2016 (see record 2016-52334-001). ] The effect of primes (i.e., incidental cues) on human behavior has become controversial. Early studies reported counterintuitive findings, suggesting that primes can shape a wide range of human behaviors. Recently, several studies failed to replicate some earlier priming results, raising doubts about the reliability of those effects. We present a within-subjects procedure for priming behavior, in which participants decide whether to bet or pass on each trial of a gambling game. We report 6 replications (N = 988) showing that primes consistently affected gambling decisions when the decision was uncertain. Decisions were influenced by primes presented visibly, with a warning to ignore the primes (Experiments 1 through 3) and with subliminally presented masked primes (Experiment 4). Using a process dissociation procedure, we found evidence that primes influenced responses through both automatic and controlled processes (Experiments 5 and 6). Results provide evidence that primes can reliably affect behavior, under at least some conditions, without intention. The findings suggest that the psychological question of whether behavior priming effects are real should be separated from methodological issues affecting how easily particular experimental designs will replicate.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
B Keith
BK
Payne
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky.
Jazmin L
JL
Brown-Iannuzzi
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado.
Chris
C
Loersch
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001519:Behavior; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012660:Semantics