Do We Control Situations or Do Situations Control Us? With John Bargh

Aug 22, 2021

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Can we control our unconscious behavior? How much does the situation we’re in control us? Can we prime people to behave a certain way? Is it even ethical to try? To what degree do cultural identity and stereotyping impact the automaticity of our actions?

Following on from our discussion with Dr Philip Zimbardo PhD, in our last episode (#247) about the Stanford Prison Experiment, we reached out to our friend and previous guest (episode #155), Dr John Bargh PhD, social psychologist at Yale University. As the world’s leading expert on the unconscious mind, John gave us fresh insight on how our behavior is primed by factors such as our cultural identity and even by who we are thinking about.

Interestingly our conversation shifted towards changing attitudes in society and in particular the inspiration stance that athletes such as Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have taken recently to prioritize their mental health. John describes them as pioneers: “what pioneers and leaders do is they give an alternative example for the other people and say, “You know what, you don't have to do this, here's what I did.””

In our last interview with John, he left us with some parting wisdom; to hug our children more. We couldn’t resist asking him for some more wise words, so listen to the end to find out John’s advice to all of us.

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Topics we discuss with John Bargh

(3:58) Welcome to John Bargh and speed round questions.

(7:50) Nature vs nurture?

(11:51) A summary of John’s research on automaticity and priming.

(15:04) How you activate a different cultural identity.

(19:42) How did the Stanford Prison Experiment impact social psychology research?

(25:09) Do we control situations or do situations control us?

(30:14) Can you prime someone to commit murder?

(35:17) How Simone Biles is an example of changing attitudes in society.

(37:14) Are employees starting to self-select which corporation they work for?

(44:29) What direction is the research on priming and automaticity heading in the future?

(47:33) What research is John engaged in right now?

(50:08) How can we prevent ourselves from being influenced by our context?

(52:46) John’s wise parting advice.

(56:28) Grooving Session with Kurt and Tim discussing the interview.

Links

John Bargh book “Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do”: https://amzn.to/3yUHka8

Episode 155: John Bargh: Dante, Coffee and the Unconscious Mind: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/john-bargh-dante-coffee-and-the-unconscious-mind/

William James: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James

Rozin, Paul. (1976): “The evolution of intelligence and access to the cognitive unconscious.” Progress in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology: https://bit.ly/37JnBhI

Cushman, Fiery (2019): “Rationalization is Rational”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences: https://bit.ly/2VRicTG

Episode 229: From Holding the Mic to Theory of Mind: Rob Leonard’s Love of Language: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/rob-leonards-love-of-language/

Stanford Prison Experiment: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/stanford-prison-experiment/

Rosanna Summers: http://www.roseannasommers.com/

Vanessa Bohns: “You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters”: https://amzn.to/3g5Omlg

Lee Ross: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ross

Kerri Strug: https://www.today.com/news/kerri-strug-shares-her-support-simone-biles-rest-usa-gymnasts-t226636

Simone Biles: https://www.simonebiles.com/

Naomi Osaka: https://www.naomiosaka.com/

Episode 147: Gary Latham, PhD: Goal Setting, Prompts, Priming, and Skepticism: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/gary-latham-goal-setting-prompts/

Support Behavioral Grooves Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves

Musical Links

Jimi Hendrix “Somewhere”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-THhwh5mNI

Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin) “Stairway to Heaven”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkF3oxziUI4