How can you use priming to create social impact?

Priming is a psychological phenomenon where exposure to a stimulus influences a person's response to a subsequent stimulus, often without their awareness. To create social impact using emotional intelligence, you can prime people to behave in ways that promote positive emotions and behaviors. For example, you can use positive priming words like "efficient," "together," "helpful," "goal," "well-organized," and "team" to encourage constructive behavior. Conversely, you can avoid negative priming words like "stress," "pressure," "tighten," "rush," and "tasks" to discourage negative behavior .

Start by clearly defining the social issue you aim to address. Whether it's raising awareness about environmental conservation, promoting gender equality, or combating poverty, a specific issue should be the focal point.

Priming can be a powerful tool to create social impact by influencing people's thoughts, behaviors, and decision-making in a positive way. So, leadership at the workplace should promote this for staff wellbeing and company growth.

Conduct preliminary research to identify potential stimuli. This could involve surveys, focus groups, or market research to understand what elements are most likely to elicit the desired response. Emotional content often has a powerful impact. Think about whether your stimuli can trigger emotions like joy, empathy, or curiosity, which can lead to stronger engagement.

Priming is closely associated with the idea of framing as far as packaging a message is concerned. For the purposes of helping create social impact, priming can be used in a way that considers a key insight validated from research in multiple disciplines - people engage and consume information that affirms their identities and aligns with their deeply held values and worldview, and avoid or reject information that challenges or threatens them. If we want people to engage and take action, we have to connect to what they care about and how they see themselves. This is just one example of how to use priming.

Determine the specific behavioral change you want to encourage. This could be getting people to recycle more, support gender-inclusive policies, or donate to a poverty alleviation program. Only then can you identify the prime or stimulus that will trigger the desired behavior

Start by asking if your audience has ever encountered a similar experience in the past. Such as, “have you ever experienced or seen, ‘x or y’ before?” If they are having a hard time to recall anything from their memory, this is an opportunity to give an experience or example of your own. This ties an authentic vulnerability with demonstration before explication; placing some risk on your end prior to asking them to take action.