Week 3 Discussion
Define priming, using and citing Magee.
Explain why priming does not meet one or more criteria listed in Magee’s definition of persuasion in Chapter 1.
Recall a recent shopping experience where one or more of your five senses were primed to get you to purchase a product.
What ‘mental associations” did you make consciously or unconsciously? If one is not conscious of the influence, explain whether it can still be deemed persuasion.
Your initial response must be 300 to 350 words in length. You must support your claims with examples from the text, required and recommended material, and/or scholarly articles and cite your sources.
Week 3 Discussion
According to Magee (2014), priming is the phenomenon where the person had been exposed to the external stimulus either in a conscious or non-conscious way. This exposure will influence or persuades the other person to respond to different stimuli or situation. Priming could be either a word, smell, or image that makes the person’s idea more accessible. Magee’s definition of persuasion stated in Chapter 1 says that action without thought could not be said as persuasion because the target’s free will is not involved. If the action needs to be transformed into an attempt, then free will must be involved. Hence priming does not meet the criteria of the targetted free will of the person like persuasion (Magee, 2014). On the other hand, priming does not target, force, or compel, hence the free will of the individual is not violated nor will involve the target’s free will in the attempt of the action.
Recently, I had gone to buy shoes and the smell of the shoes had always prompted my childhood memories of going to buy school shoes with my mom. Hence, the good memories associated with buying the shoes offered me a relaxed and comfortable shopping experience. Therefore, I can say that I had easily persuaded when primed by the smell of the shoes. The sense of smell can equally be subliminal and supraliminal. The mental associations which I had made up our conscious because I am aware, intentional, and had made up my mind of buying the shoes. After discussing my shopping experience, I can say that the more sense an individual got toward the products that they are buying, the better will be the process of persuasion. Just like the above mentioned, as I got attracted to the sense of smell, it might be possible that more and more shopkeepers will try to persuade the buyers.
Reference
Magee, R. (2014). Persuasion: A social science approach. [Electronic version]. Retrieved on 29th July 2022, from: https://content.uagc.edu/books/Magee.1516.14.1/sections/ch07sec7.1
