Behavioral Priming: It's All in the Mind, but Whose Mind?

By Stéphane Doyen, Olivier Klein, Cora-Lise Pichon, Axel Cleeremans. PLoS ONE, 2012

608 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The perspective that behavior is often driven by unconscious determinants has become widespread in social psychology. Bargh, Chen, and Burrows' (1996) famous study, in which participants unwittingly exposed to the stereotype of age walked slower when exiting the laboratory, was instrumental in defining this perspective. Here, we present two experiments aimed at replicating the original study. Despite the use of automated timing methods and a larger sample, our first experiment failed to show priming. Our second experiment was aimed at manipulating the beliefs of the experimenters: Half were led to think that participants would walk slower when primed congruently, and the other half was led to expect the opposite. Strikingly, we obtained a walking speed effect, but only when experimenters believed participants would indeed walk slower. This suggests that both priming and experimenters' expectations are instrumental in explaining the walking speed effect. Further, debriefing was suggestive of awareness of the primes. We conclude that unconscious behavioral priming is real, while real, involves mechanisms different from those typically assumed to cause the effect.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3412538295a468dcc7775290d173a0acf85a4b97

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Citations in the corpus

What can recent replication failures tell us about the theoretical commitments of psychology? (2014, background): “In the interest of full disclosure, and to distance myself from the particulars of the debate, I hasten to note that I am not the “Klein” in the Doyen et al. (2012) reference.”
The Replication Recipe: What Makes for a Convincing Replication? (2014, background): “For example, the failure of recent attempts to replicate “ social priming ” effects (e.g., Doyen, Klein, Pichon, & Cleeremans, 2012; Pashler et al., in press) has prompted psychologists and science journalists to raise questions about the entire phenomenon (e.g., Bartlett, 2013).”
Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings (2018, background): “There have been a variety of failures to replicate effects that were quite large in the original investigation (e.g., Doyen, Klein, Pichon, & Cleeremans, 2012; Hagger et al., 2016; Hawkins, Fitzgerald, & Nosek, 2015; Johnson, Cheung, & Donnellan, 2014).”
Avoiding the Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving (2017, unknown): “Finally, recent work on the reliability of “positive results” has highlighted the importance of using related literature to form priors and conducting independent replications (Doyen et al. 2012; Open Science Collaboration 2012; Maniadis, Tufano, and List 2014).”
Measuring the Prevalence of Questionable Research Practices With Incentives for Truth Telling (2012, unknown): “…that many researchers have expressed concerns over failures to replicate published results (Bower & Mayer, 1985; Crabbe, Wahlsten, & Dudek, 1999; Doyen, Klein, Pichon, & Cleeremans, 2012, Enserink, 1999; Galak, LeBoeuf, Nelson, & Simmons, 2012; Ioannidis, 2005a, 2005b; Palmer, 2000; Steele,…”
Behavioural Insights and (Un)healthy Dietary Choices: a Review of Current Evidence (2018, background): “Interventions that aim to increase salience are closely related to the priming literature (e.g., Doyen et al. 2012).”
NO CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN THE GETTIER CAR CASE INTUITION: A REPLICATION STUDY OF WEINBERG ET AL. 2001 (2015, background): “Our project ts into a growing concern in social sciences over studies with ashy results failing to replicate (e.g., Doyen et al. 2012).”