Priming (psychology)
Etymology
From prime, "to prepare or make ready," as in priming a pump. Cognitive studies of semantic priming — where reading "nurse" speeds recognition of "doctor" — are well established since the 1970s. Broader claims of behavioral or "social" priming are contested: several headline findings failed to replicate during psychology’s replication crisis, so the flashier effects are treated with caution.
noun · /PRY-ming/
The way exposure to one stimulus quietly shapes how you respond to the next.
What it names
How a word, image, or mood you barely noticed can tilt the thought that follows, without your ever feeling nudged.
Example
The survey’s wording did some quiet priming — a paragraph about crime made respondents rate the whole city as more dangerous.
Related idea
Anchoring effect is a specific priming of number estimates; general priming can shape moods, words, and choices, not just figures.
noun / verb · /PRY-ming/
Preparing a surface with a first undercoat, or readying a pump, engine, or firearm by supplying an initial charge.
What it names
the preparatory first step — a primer coat before paint, or the fuel that gets a pump drawing
Example
The walls need priming before the topcoat will hold.
Related idea
The psychological sense is this made mental: as a primer readies a surface to take paint, an earlier stimulus readies the mind to take the next — both, from “prime,” prepare the ground first.