Priming

Priming is a psychological process in which exposure to a stimulus activates a concept in memory that is then given increased weight in subsequent judgment tasks. Priming works by making the activated concept accessible so that it can be readily used in evaluating related objects. For example, hearing news about the economy may prime individuals to focus on economic considerations when assessing a president's performance because economic concepts are activated, accessible, and presumably relevant for this type of evaluation. In this way, priming affects the opinions that individuals express, not by changing their attitudes, but by causing them to alter the criteria they use to evaluate the object in question.

Priming is a widely used concept with applications in the fields of psychology, political science, and ...