The Power of Priming and the Arts

Looking around myself and within myself, I cannot help but notice what is called in psychology “priming”. Quite simply, “Priming is a phenomenon in which exposure to one stimulus influences how a person responds to a subsequent, related stimulus.” [1] For example, someone primed with the words “bread”, “juice”, “milk”, and “so_p”, may more quickly think of “soup”. If the person were primed with the words “towel”, “shower”, “shampoo”, and “so_p”, the person may more readily think of “soap”. [2]

This is such a basic concept but it has so many implications. In sociology it is related to the concept of “framing”. It can be applied to politics, marketing, communication, mental health, arts, education, religion, philosophy, science, etc. It can be semantic as the example above, perceptual (such as recognizing a banana faster after seeing the color yellow), affective, etc.

Priming is not inherently or necessarily good or bad, positive or negative. In everyday terms, it could be called “setting the tone”. It could be intentional or unintentional, misleading or beneficial. Regardless, priming is perhaps sine qua non as people organize, predict, and make sense of the world. Schemas and paradigms are inevitable and unavoidable. People fill in the blanks.

There are arguments about the existence of such a phenomenon as “priming effect”. But if there is such an effect, what are we vis-à-vis the effect? People like to think of themselves as primers rather than the primed. But we are all primed in one way or another.

Maybe the question is not whether we are the primers or the primed, but to consciously “set the tone” within a larger framework.

The answer as to whether or how to set the tone cannot be reached from deductive, inductive, or abductive logic alone. The answer, if there is one, must reach the heart of humanity.

Here I think of the tones of art, music, and dance. Birds and bees communicate via displays and dances. The bees’ waggle dance communicates the direction and distance of the food source, and the “dance language” could be learned even across bee species. [3]

I believe people understand and communicate in their own languages and forms of artistic and cultural expression. It is our way to cope with the human condition — of food, elation, deflation, love, loss, rules, and meaning; the mundane and the extraordinary — the unintelligible feigning intelligibility.

In music, the technique of “call and response” is remarkable and can be found in many traditions. It is featured in the jazz song “Knock on Wood” in the 1942 film “Casablanca” and performed by Dooley Wilson.

CALL: Who’s got trouble?
RESPONSE: We’ve got trouble!
CALL: How much trouble?
RESPONSE: Too much trouble!

As in priming, one person calls and the others respond. To respond to a call, one must listen intently and cooperate to fulfill the harmony of the song. The caller must set the proper tone for others to follow. The caller and responders share responsibilities for each other.

Call and response is a quintessential element of jazz, and so is improvisation, layered rhythms, and layered melodies. Based on a phrase with a key signature and time signature, possibilities are endless. When one listens to classical jazz, one might first hear the saxophone’s improvised phrasings, backed up by the piano, bass cello, and drums. Then one hears the piano’s phrasings backed up, then the bass’s phrasings, then the drums’ phrasings. Then they all play the main refrain together.

What makes jazz unique is that it does not follow exact prescriptions. It is dynamic, improvisational, and democratic and perhaps in that sense it more closely resembles the human condition than other musical styles.

Quilting and tapestry is another art form that is dynamic, improvisational, and democratic. As one sews a patch telling her/his story, others add on to the patch, and it becomes a quilt telling a grand story.

In games, mental and physical, gymnastics and choreography, one expresses individuality, yet still being primed by the rules of the game. Some change the rules and create a new game.

In writing, there are various styles and genres, poetry, essays, comedy, tragedy, fiction, non-fiction, experimental, etc. Writers are primed by their categories and veer into new territories.

I still think of jazz, that living art form that ruptures yet unites. It ruptures what is commonly thought of as music, it diversifies, and it embodies the human spirit.

Even if one does not enjoy jazz music, the principles can be respected. I don’t mind being primed by it.

Freedom is knowing how to prime and be primed, ethically and responsibly. At least this is my freedom and priming.

[1] Priming https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/priming

[2] Why do some ideas prompt other ideas later on without our conscious awareness? https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/priming

[3] East Learns from West: Asiatic Honeybees Can Understand Dance Language of European Honeybees https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2391287/

The Power of Priming and the Arts