The Mechanics of Pre-Suasion: Causes, Constraints, and Correctives

The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it’s possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they experience it. The key is to focus them initially on concepts that are aligned associatively with the yet-to-be-encountered information.

A rather underappreciated characteristic of mental activity: its elements don’t just fire when ready; they fire when readied. After we attend to a specific concept, those concepts closely linked to it enjoy a privileged moment within our minds, acquiring influence that nonlinked concepts simply can’t match. That is so for a pair of reasons. First, once an opener concept (German music, weight) receives our attention, closely associated secondary concepts (German wine, substance) become more accessible in consciousness, which greatly improves the chance that we will attend and respond to the linked concepts. This newly enhanced standing in consciousness elevates their capacity to color our perceptions, orient our thinking, affect our motivations, and thereby change our relevant behavior. Second, at the same time, concepts not linked to the opener are suppressed in consciousness, making them less likely than before to receive our attention and gain influence. Rather than being readied for action, they get decommissioned temporarily.

This mechanism, in which an opened secondary concept becomes more cognitively accessible, appears to account for the consequences of a controversial relatively recent phenomenon: video game participation. We know from considerable research that playing violent video games incites immediate forms of antisocial behavior. For instance, such games make players more likely to deliver loud blasts of noise into the ears of someone who has annoyed them. The reason? The games plant aggression-related thoughts in players’ heads, and the resulting easy contact with those thoughts provokes aggressiveness.

A tellingly similar but mirror-image effect occurs after participating in prosocial video games—those that call for protecting, rescuing, or assisting characters in the game. Studies have found that after playing such games, players became more willing to help clean up a spill, volunteer their time,

In an interesting twist, newer research shows that sometimes violent video game play can decrease later aggressive behavior, provided that the participants have to cooperate with one another in the game to destroy an enemy.

Remaining Questions. Surprising Answers

Useful implications of this basic mechanism of pre-suasion come from research answering three additional questions about the reach of the process.

How soon? The first concerns its primitiveness.

How early in life can we expect an opener to create such a privileged moment?

Subjects who were shown a series of photographs that included a pair of individuals standing close together.

Because togetherness and helpfulness are linked in people’s minds, observers of these photos

Were three times more likely to assist the researcher in picking up some items she “accidently” dropped.

The first got me to whistle under my breath when I read it: the study’s subjects, whose helpfulness tripled, were eighteen months old—hardly

Second, its effect on them was spontaneous.

How for? Can any link between two concepts, no matter how distant or tenuous, trigger a privileged moment for the second after the first has been brought to mind? No. There’s an important limit to pre-suasive effects. Attention to the first concept readies the second for influence in proportion to the degree of association between the two.

A preliminary survey revealed three social norms that people rated as close to, moderately far from, and far from the norm against littering. They were, respectively, the norms for recycling, for turning off lights to conserve energy at home, and for voting. The next step was much more interesting. We went to a public library parking lot and put a handbill on the windshield of each car. At random, the vehicles got a handbill with one of four messages: (1) against littering, (2) for recycling, (3) for turning off lights, and (4) for voting. As a control-group communication, we included a fifth handbill that contained a message that didn’t refer to any social norm; it promoted the local arts museum. When the owners returned to their cars and read a handbill, we watched to see if they dropped them on the ground.

The behavior pattern we observed could not have been clearer. A message focusing people specifically on the anti-littering norm best equipped them to resist the tendency to litter. But directing their attention to opener concepts progressively distant from the anti-littering norm made them less able, at each remove, to resist that impulse.

Therefore, an aspiring pre-suader wishing to prompt an action (helping, let’s say) should find a concept already associated strongly and positively with the action (togetherness would be a good choice) and bring that concept to mind in potential helpers just before requesting their aid.

The stronger the link between a handbill message and the norm against littering, the less littering there was. Courtesy

How manufacturable? But there is another approach that doesn’t require finding a strong existing connection. In fact, it doesn’t require an existing connection at all. Rather, it involves creating a connection from scratch. Advertisers have been using the tactic for more than a century: they present something that attracts their target audience—a beautiful vista, a good-looking model, a popular celebrity—and then link it to the product through nothing more than a simultaneous presence inside the ad. There, observers of advertisers’ handiwork might experience—and, indeed, have experienced—a connection between Tiger Woods and Buick; Beyoncé and Pepsi; Brad Pitt and Chanel No. 5; or (unsettlingly to me) Bob Dylan and Victoria’s Secret. The hope, of course, is that viewers’ attraction to the celebrity will transfer to the product by virtue of the now-extant connection.

The takeaway here is that an effective linkage between concepts doesn’t have to be located in prevailing reality. It can be constructed. The concepts only have to be experienced as linked directly in some way for the subsequent presentation of one to prepare the other for pertinent action. Recall that for Pavlov’s dogs, there was no natural connection between the sound of a bell and food; indeed, there was no link of any sort until the two were experienced as occurring together.

For instance, to the delight of advertisers, simply superimposing a brand of Belgian beer five times on pictures of pleasant activities such as sailing, waterskiing, and cuddling increased viewers’ positive feelings toward the beer.

Subliminally exposing thirsty people eight times to pictures of happy (versus angry) faces just before having them taste a new soft drink caused them to consume more of the beverage and to be willing to pay three times more for it in the store.

The Mechanics of Pre-Suasion: Causes, Constraints, and Correctives

The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it’s possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they experience it. The key is to focus them initially on concepts that are aligned associatively with the yet-to-be-encountered information.

A rather underappreciated characteristic of mental activity: its elements don’t just fire when ready; they fire when readied. After we attend to a specific concept, those concepts closely linked to it enjoy a privileged moment within our minds, acquiring influence that nonlinked concepts simply can’t match. That is so for a pair of reasons. First, once an opener concept (German music, weight) receives our attention, closely associated secondary concepts (German wine, substance) become more accessible in consciousness, which greatly improves the chance that we will attend and respond to the linked concepts. This newly enhanced standing in consciousness elevates their capacity to color our perceptions, orient our thinking, affect our motivations, and thereby change our relevant behavior. Second, at the same time, concepts not linked to the opener are suppressed in consciousness, making them less likely than before to receive our attention and gain influence. Rather than being readied for action, they get decommissioned temporarily.

This mechanism, in which an opened secondary concept becomes more cognitively accessible, appears to account for the consequences of a controversial relatively recent phenomenon: video game participation. We know from considerable research that playing violent video games incites immediate forms of antisocial behavior. For instance, such games make players more likely to deliver loud blasts of noise into the ears of someone who has annoyed them. The reason? The games plant aggression-related thoughts in players’ heads, and the resulting easy contact with those thoughts provokes aggressiveness.

A tellingly similar but mirror-image effect occurs after participating in prosocial video games—those that call for protecting, rescuing, or assisting characters in the game. Studies have found that after playing such games, players became more willing to help clean up a spill, volunteer their time,

In an interesting twist, newer research shows that sometimes violent video game play can decrease later aggressive behavior, provided that the participants have to cooperate with one another in the game to destroy an enemy.

Remaining Questions. Surprising Answers

Useful implications of this basic mechanism of pre-suasion come from research answering three additional questions about the reach of the process.

How soon? The first concerns its primitiveness.

How early in life can we expect an opener to create such a privileged moment?

Subjects who were shown a series of photographs that included a pair of individuals standing close together.

Because togetherness and helpfulness are linked in people’s minds, observers of these photos

Were three times more likely to assist the researcher in picking up some items she “accidently” dropped.

The first got me to whistle under my breath when I read it: the study’s subjects, whose helpfulness tripled, were eighteen months old—hardly

Second, its effect on them was spontaneous.

How for? Can any link between two concepts, no matter how distant or tenuous, trigger a privileged moment for the second after the first has been brought to mind? No. There’s an important limit to pre-suasive effects. Attention to the first concept readies the second for influence in proportion to the degree of association between the two.

A preliminary survey revealed three social norms that people rated as close to, moderately far from, and far from the norm against littering. They were, respectively, the norms for recycling, for turning off lights to conserve energy at home, and for voting. The next step was much more interesting. We went to a public library parking lot and put a handbill on the windshield of each car. At random, the vehicles got a handbill with one of four messages: (1) against littering, (2) for recycling, (3) for turning off lights, and (4) for voting. As a control-group communication, we included a fifth handbill that contained a message that didn’t refer to any social norm; it promoted the local arts museum. When the owners returned to their cars and read a handbill, we watched to see if they dropped them on the ground.
The behavior pattern we observed could not have been clearer. A message focusing people specifically on the anti-littering norm best equipped them to resist the tendency to litter. But directing their attention to opener concepts progressively distant from the anti-littering norm made them less able, at each remove, to resist that impulse.

Therefore, an aspiring pre-suader wishing to prompt an action (helping, let’s say) should find a concept already associated strongly and positively with the action (togetherness would be a good choice) and bring that concept to mind in potential helpers just before requesting their aid.

The stronger the link between a handbill message and the norm against littering, the less littering there was. Courtesy

How manufacturable? But there is another approach that doesn’t require finding a strong existing connection. In fact, it doesn’t require an existing connection at all. Rather, it involves creating a connection from scratch. Advertisers have been using the tactic for more than a century: they present something that attracts their target audience—a beautiful vista, a good-looking model, a popular celebrity—and then link it to the product through nothing more than a simultaneous presence inside the ad. There, observers of advertisers’ handiwork might experience—and, indeed, have experienced—a connection between Tiger Woods and Buick; Beyoncé and Pepsi; Brad Pitt and Chanel No. 5; or (unsettlingly to me) Bob Dylan and Victoria’s Secret. The hope, of course, is that viewers’ attraction to the celebrity will transfer to the product by virtue of the now-extant connection.

The takeaway here is that an effective linkage between concepts doesn’t have to be located in prevailing reality. It can be constructed. The concepts only have to be experienced as linked directly in some way for the subsequent presentation of one to prepare the other for pertinent action. Recall that for Pavlov’s dogs, there was no natural connection between the sound of a bell and food; indeed, there was no link of any sort until the two were experienced as occurring together.

For instance, to the delight of advertisers, simply superimposing a brand of Belgian beer five times on pictures of pleasant activities such as sailing, waterskiing, and cuddling increased viewers’ positive feelings toward the beer.

Subliminally exposing thirsty people eight times to pictures of happy (versus angry) faces just before having them taste a new soft drink caused them to consume more of the beverage and to be willing to pay three times more for it in the store.

The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it’s possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they experience it. The key is to focus them initially on concepts that are aligned associatively with the yet-to-be-encountered information.

A rather underappreciated characteristic of mental activity: its elements don’t just fire when ready; they fire when readied. After we attend to a specific concept, those concepts closely linked to it enjoy a privileged moment within our minds, acquiring influence that nonlinked concepts simply can’t match. That is so for a pair of reasons. First, once an opener concept (German music, weight) receives our attention, closely associated secondary concepts (German wine, substance) become more accessible in consciousness, which greatly improves the chance that we will attend and respond to the linked concepts. This newly enhanced standing in consciousness elevates their capacity to color our perceptions, orient our thinking, affect our motivations, and thereby change our relevant behavior. Second, at the same time, concepts not linked to the opener are suppressed in consciousness, making them less likely than before to receive our attention and gain influence. Rather than being readied for action, they get decommissioned temporarily.

This mechanism, in which an opened secondary concept becomes more cognitively accessible, appears to account for the consequences of a controversial relatively recent phenomenon: video game participation. We know from considerable research that playing violent video games incites immediate forms of antisocial behavior. For instance, such games make players more likely to deliver loud blasts of noise into the ears of someone who has annoyed them. The reason? The games plant aggression-related thoughts in players’ heads, and the resulting easy contact with those thoughts provokes aggressiveness.

A tellingly similar but mirror-image effect occurs after participating in prosocial video games—those that call for protecting, rescuing, or assisting characters in the game. Studies have found that after playing such games, players became more willing to help clean up a spill, volunteer their time,

In an interesting twist, newer research shows that sometimes violent video game play can decrease later aggressive behavior, provided that the participants have to cooperate with one another in the game to destroy an enemy.

Remaining Questions. Surprising Answers

Useful implications of this basic mechanism of pre-suasion come from research answering three additional questions about the reach of the process.

How soon? The first concerns its primitiveness.

How early in life can we expect an opener to create such a privileged moment?

Subjects who were shown a series of photographs that included a pair of individuals standing close together.

Because togetherness and helpfulness are linked in people’s minds, observers of these photos

Were three times more likely to assist the researcher in picking up some items she “accidently” dropped.

The first got me to whistle under my breath when I read it: the study’s subjects, whose helpfulness tripled, were eighteen months old—hardly

Second, its effect on them was spontaneous.

How for? Can any link between two concepts, no matter how distant or tenuous, trigger a privileged moment for the second after the first has been brought to mind? No. There’s an important limit to pre-suasive effects. Attention to the first concept readies the second for influence in proportion to the degree of association between the two.

A preliminary survey revealed three social norms that people rated as close to, moderately far from, and far from the norm against littering. They were, respectively, the norms for recycling, for turning off lights to conserve energy at home, and for voting. The next step was much more interesting. We went to a public library parking lot and put a handbill on the windshield of each car. At random, the vehicles got a handbill with one of four messages: (1) against littering, (2) for recycling, (3) for turning off lights, and (4) for voting. As a control-group communication, we included a fifth handbill that contained a message that didn’t refer to any social norm; it promoted the local arts museum. When the owners returned to their cars and read a handbill, we watched to see if they dropped them on the ground.

The behavior pattern we observed could not have been clearer. A message focusing people specifically on the anti-littering norm best equipped them to resist the tendency to litter. But directing their attention to opener concepts progressively distant from the anti-littering norm made them less able, at each remove, to resist that impulse.

Therefore, an aspiring pre-suader wishing to prompt an action (helping, let’s say) should find a concept already associated strongly and positively with the action (togetherness would be a good choice) and bring that concept to mind in potential helpers just before requesting their aid.

The stronger the link between a handbill message and the norm against littering, the less littering there was. Courtesy

How manufacturable? But there is another approach that doesn’t require finding a strong existing connection. In fact, it doesn’t require an existing connection at all. Rather, it involves creating a connection from scratch. Advertisers have been using the tactic for more than a century: they present something that attracts their target audience—a beautiful vista, a good-looking model, a popular celebrity—and then link it to the product through nothing more than a simultaneous presence inside the ad. There, observers of advertisers’ handiwork might experience—and, indeed, have experienced—a connection between Tiger Woods and Buick; Beyoncé and Pepsi; Brad Pitt and Chanel No. 5; or (unsettlingly to me) Bob Dylan and Victoria’s Secret. The hope, of course, is that viewers’ attraction to the celebrity will transfer to the product by virtue of the now-extant connection.

The takeaway here is that an effective linkage between concepts doesn’t have to be located in prevailing reality. It can be constructed. The concepts only have to be experienced as linked directly in some way for the subsequent presentation of one to prepare the other for pertinent action. Recall that for Pavlov’s dogs, there was no natural connection between the sound of a bell and food; indeed, there was no link of any sort until the two were experienced as occurring together.

For instance, to the delight of advertisers, simply superimposing a brand of Belgian beer five times on pictures of pleasant activities such as sailing, waterskiing, and cuddling increased viewers’ positive feelings toward the beer.

Subliminally exposing thirsty people eight times to pictures of happy (versus angry) faces just before having them taste a new soft drink caused them to consume more of the beverage and to be willing to pay three times more for it in the store.