The effect of doubt priming on conformity

In ambiguous situations, people are driven to reduce uncertainty by searching for accurate information from other people. As such, people often conform to the behaviors of others in ambiguous situations. Automaticity research shows that priming techniques can activate mental states and behaviors, like conformity (J. A. Bargh, 1994; L. Pendry & R. Carrick, 2001), thus it is possible to manipulate uncertainty or doubt using priming procedures. The current study tested the hypothesis that participants primed with doubt will be more likely to conform than those primed with either negative or neutral primes. Participants completed a subliminal priming task, and then rated a series of photos that they were told had been given a "Thumbs Up" or a "Thumbs Down" by fictitious internet users. Conformity, the dependent variable, was measured as an agreement between participants' ratings and those of the "internet users." The results revealed that participants did conform but not as a function of priming condition.