"You want fries with that?" I have worked in fast food and suggestive selling is an art. Chris is a master of the art. I never heard him ask that question, nor even anything like it. He talks to the customer. He engages them and converses with them. He's their friend in a matter of seconds and suddenly he says, "You know what is great with that sandwich?" and the customer is begging for his recommendations. "Ahhh! It's a hot day and ya gotta have a sweet tea to wash that down with!" Rarely does Chris ask if you want to buy something. He pays attention to the customers and suggests things they are unconsciously saying they want. To the lady who is complaining about her diet and eating a grilled chicken sandwich instead of fried, he tells her how good the side salads are and suddenly she needs one….(for a buck-fifty!) and while you're at it, how about some lettuce and tomato on that sandwich… it's guilt free! (and $.45!) To the guy who is tired of shopping with his wife all day, he "rewards" him with a piece of cheesecake (for $1.89!). He primes them and his check average is consistently 10-15% higher than anyone else's.
Priming can help us touch the adaptive unconscious. Glad well tells of an experiment conducted by Norman R.F. Maier. In the experiment, he hung two ropes from the ceiling of a large room. They were too far apart for a person to hold one and still reach the other. The room was also filled with other objects such as furniture, tools, etc. The objective for the subjects was to figure the four ways to get the ends of the rope close enough to tie together. Three solutions generally came quickly. One was to extend one rope with another rope or extension cord. One was to pull one rope as far as it would go, then anchor it while you went and got the other. The third option was to hold one rope and reach for the other with some type of extension of your arm such as a rake or pole. Only a few figured out the fourth option – to swing one rope like a pendulum, then grab the other rope. Maier would let them think for ten minutes or so, then casually walk across the room and "accidently" brush against one rope setting it in motion. Suddenly, the fourth answer came to people. When asked how they finally figured out that last elusive solution, only one could say that it was because he hit the rope. According to Gladwell, one psychology professor said that he imagined monkeys swinging in the trees and "The imagery appeared simultaneously with the solution. The idea appeared complete." (Gladwell, 2005, p. 70). The fact that Maier gave him a hint didn't eve occur to him. To the rest, it just suddenly came to them as some sort of revelation. "Were these people lying?" Gladwell asks. The thing is that Maier touched them in the unconscious level. He just reached through the locked door subtly enough that they were not even aware that he gave them a hint. He primed them.
Gladwell also tells of another very interesting experiment. Two experimenters took 20 questions from the GRE and tested several black college students. The group who was asked to identify their race on the pre-exam questionnaire (and that was the only difference) scored about half as well as those who were not asked the race question. The simple act of identifying their race was subtle enough to stir up the negative stereotypes. Two Dutch experimenters gave 42 Trivial Pursuit questions to two groups of students. One group was asked to think of what it might be like to be a professor at the university. The other group was asked to think about soccer hooligans. The professor group got 55.6% of the questions right while the soccer hooligans only scored 42.6%. It is simply the frame of mind.
The results of these experiments are, as Gladwell points out, quite disturbing. So what do they show us about the unconscious aspects of our thoughts? That we are open to priming and outside influences? Perhaps, but Gladwell sees something else; and that is that our unconscious can act very independently. It is constantly helping us make decisions while our conscious thought is busy with the affairs of life. Asking if you want fries makes it a conscious decision and generally people will say "no". Chris touches the unconscious thoughts and lets them make the decision there. Gladwell calls the unconscious mind a "mental valet" that takes care of the minor mental details. He concludes that "Sometimes we are better off if the mind behind the locked door makes our decisions for us." In the Maier experiment, Gladwell notes, the people weren't stupid. Their conscious mind was blocked, but the unconscious was busy solving the problem. All it took was a little prompting for the valet to guide them to the solution.
Hmmm… My conscious mind has been busy thinking about Blink! I finally got this done and yet, for some reason, I think I deserve a piece of cheesecake. Maybe I can find a couple bucks in the cushions of the couch. Dang! Where's Chris? He's at it again!!
