When the Same Prime Leads to Different Effects

12 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2007

See all articles by S. Christian Wheeler

S. Christian Wheeler

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Jonah A. Berger

University of Pennsylvania - Marketing Department

Abstract

Research on priming effects has shown that primes with widely shared associations (i.e., stereotypes) affect the subsequent behavior of people in consistent ways (i.e., acting stereotypically). In this article, we present two experiments that show that the same primed construct can have different effects on the subsequent choices of different groups of people. These differences in effects are attributable to the groups having different prime associations. These results highlight the importance of understanding unique, personal associations to primes and suggest that segmentation is also important for predicting nonconsciously influenced choices.

Keywords: Priming, Associations, Product Choice, Environmental Cues

JEL Classification: M31, M37

Suggested Citation

Wheeler, S. Christian and Berger, Jonah A., When the Same Prime Leads to Different Effects. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 34, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1017173

S. Christian Wheeler

Stanford Graduate School of Business ( email )

655 Knight Way
Stanford, CA 94305-5015
United States

Jonah A. Berger (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania - Marketing Department ( email )

700 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6340
United States

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