Why Are You A Product Of Your Environment?
We have all heard our mom’s saying (almost screaming) to:
Not hang around with the bad kids in the neighbourhood,
Or not go to the shady parts of the town,
Or not bring the junk home because it will affect you negatively.
Turns out your mother was right! (Sorta)
It’s all because of the effect called priming.
So What Is Priming?
A quick Wikipedia search will offer the following definition:
“Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus.”
In plain English,
It means that priming is the unconscious response you will have to the environment around you. (later on)
Numerous psychology studies have been done on this such as:
A) Word Completion Task
B) Lexical Decision Task
C) Stereotyping
But if you don’t want to look these up, then a simple question will show you the importance of priming.
What’s the difference between a rich man’s house and an average man’s house?
My first-hand experience points out that a rich man has more books than an average man can read in his lifetime.
While an average man’s house has a T.V which he considers his most favored possession.
Do these things have an effect on how much money they make?
Of course, they do!
So the question then becomes:
Is it the man who makes his environment or is it the environment that makes the man?
My answer:
It’s a bit of both.
First, the man chooses what he will keep in his environment, then his environment constantly pings him with the subconscious triggers that affect his decisions.
Here’s how you can use the priming effect to your advantage:
* Pick what you put into your environment consciously.
* Hang posters of role models and ideas that you have in mind.
* Don’t let your workroom or bedroom get dirty or unclean.
* Decide carefully on what you will read, listen and watch.
Truth is that we don’t know how deeply this effects us.
And even science and psychology has only begun to understand the implications of it.
So go and clean your room, hang up posters, and be conscious of what you have in your environment.
To your success,
- Dan
P.S: Here are a few resources you can look up to if you are interested in further reading:
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230–244.
Tanya L. Chartrand, Joel Huber, Baba Shiv, Robin J. Tanner; Nonconscious Goals and Consumer Choice, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 35, Issue 2, 1 August 2008, Pages 189–201
Vohs, Kathleen D., Nicole L. Mead, Miranda R. Goode (2006) The Psychological Consequences of Money.
