The Impact of Age-Associated Priming Words on Behavior

Numerous studies have been conducted on behavioral priming, which examined that exposure to a specific word can unconsciously influence subsequent behavior, generally described as behavioral priming. Many studies supported the behavioral priming effects and others yield contradictory findings. This study aimed to address previous literature contrasting findings by investigating whether exposure to old age primed words and neutral words would affect participants' walking speed. This study utilized a pre-test post-test true experimental research design, involving 30 participants aged between 18 and 25. The participants were randomly assigned to either the group exposed to words primed with old age associations or the group exposed to neutral-primed words. The study assessed the priming effect by measuring participants' walking speed before and after reading the neutral or priming words. The results revealed no significant effects on behavioral priming of old age and youth-related words. For instance, no statistical difference can be observed in the pre-and post-walk of behavioral priming condition. The study concludes that there is no priming effect in university students regarding their walking speed after exposure to prime and neutral words. As these findings were conducted on a small sample, further studies with different methodologies are needed to conduct and examine the priming effect on behavior.