Smoking gun

The big question is this: when does priming work and when does it fall flat? Anyone hoping to prod us towards a healthier lifestyle will need to be aware of the treacherous twists of the subconscious mind. Graduate student Brian D. Earp at the University of Oxford and his colleagues recently showed smokers photos of scenes that contained inconspicuous “no smoking” signs or no signs at all. In a follow-up task, those who had seen the signs responded more positively to smoking-related images on  a computer screen than those who hadn’t. This suggests the smokers had been cued to think about lighting up. Negating a concept is an extra step  for the brain, Earp explains. So when  a smoker sees “no smoking”, her first thought is “smoking”. Although this was just a small pilot study, anyone hoping  to nudge our behaviour should do so carefully. Clearly, we are only beginning to understand the strings that subtly pull and push the course of our lives. “We’re constantly being nudged in one direction or another,” Earp says. “Sometimes we’re aware of it, and sometimes not.”  ■