The Behavioral Consequences of Schema Activation.

Abstract

Cognitive approaches to experimental and social psychology hold that people come to underst and the world through cognitive structures, or schemas. Although much research has been conducted on how these schemas influence information processing, much less has been conducted on two equally important problems: (1) What are the factors that determine whether any given schema will be activated or primed?, and (2) How do schemas influence meaningful social behavior? The two experiments reported here addressed these problems. In both experiments, subjects read a newspaper article designed to prime conceptions of helping. Some of these articles were designed to prime the schema for helping people. Other articles were designed to prime the schema for helping science. Next, subjects were given an opportunity to either help a person (assist a person walking up the stairs on crutches) or help science (volunteers for additional psychology experiments). Subjects were not aware that the helping task had anything to do with the experiment. Even so, the priming articles had a significant and specific effect on behavior. For example, an article that was designed to prime the science helping schema served to enhance volunteering, but did not influence helping the person. Moreover, it was found that priming the schema through a persona was particularly effective in enhancing schema-relevant behavior. In addition to enhancing behavior, the priming articles also enhanced the correlation between attitudes and behavior. These findings have implications for research that attempts to determine the nature and content of schemas, and suggests that future approaches to cognitive social psychology should explore the relationship between schemas and social behavior.