“What is negative priming?”

If you ask that before you opened the article, you wouldn’t be the only one. It’s a term that you don’t often hear in today’s discussion about marketing, yet it’s vital to avoid creating hesitation in a consumer’s mind.

Negative priming is defined as “an implicit memory effect in which prior exposure to a stimulus unfavorable influences the response to the same stimulus.”

So — Our history dictates how we react to current circumstances. If it was negative, we have a negative feeling going into it.

Unfortunately, for many industries like car sales and dentistry, there’s a historical precedent of a bad experience. That means we’re not off to a great start. Still, many marketing specialists and content writers for small businesses make the mistake of compounding this by using negative priming words. You’ll never see major corporations fall into this trap because the advertising industry has been positively priming consumers, particularly since the 1957 publication of The Hidden Persuaders. In it, the author states that “Priming refers to the incidental activation of known structures, such as trait concepts and stereotypes, by the current situational context.”

Again, that sentence should ring some bells for people who work in industries with a stigma.

You still might wonder how the memory of a prior stimulus is related to written or verbal communication. American Express actually conducted a great experiment that I’d like to use. I’m going to give you two lists. Tell me which one is the good person and which one is the bad person.

Giving. Helpful. Others. Selfish. Taking.

Taking. Selfish. Others. Helpful. Giving.

You likely said that the good person is #1 and the bad person is #2. That’s because of the context of the words — the way we learned what they mean — that influenced our decision.

The same can be said for words that I often see used on automotive and dental sites. There are terms that, because of our understanding of the word, creates a subliminal aversion and negatively influences our purchasing decision.

Here’s another example that used visuals and words (sounds a lot like a website):

Some participants in a University of Minnesota were primed with the word “money” and visuals of money that accompanied it. Others weren’t. The people who were primed about “money” donated less to a request for charity than the others (39% vs. 67%).

The subjects of the study primed about money had the notion of dollars and cents in their conscious, so they began thinking about finances and other expenditures and were less likely to give it away.

So to the point of my article here. Negative priming words that I see on a lot of dealership and dental websites. It’s very simple and subtle, but this is terminology that negatively influences people as they make decisions on where to purchase a car and where to receive dental work.

Dentistry — Pain-free

Automotive — Hassle-free

The intent is to communicate that prospects will not feel pain and will not feel hassled, respectively. But by using those terms — our understanding of which is a negative consequence — we immediately begin to think (just like those primed about money) about the “pain” and “hassle” that we want to avoid.

We want to think of alternatives that positively prime customers.

Dentistry — Gentle

Automotive — Smooth or Enjoyable

There are, of course, other options. There are, of course, other terms that may be on your site that are negatively priming consumers. Check over your site. See what you find. Make adjustments.