Sophisticated methods to show that you support something - are symbols bygones?

Some time ago I wrote about how priming-effect can be used to direct someone's thoughts and how it can be transformed to a social game, wherein a single individual is targeted by others. Presented principles can also be applied to situations, where someone is merely making an effort to show his support toward something, but without letting everyone recognize it.

Because of the requirement "without letting everyone recognize it" and because of the possible time limit, something must be recognized without lots of effort, preferably intuitively, and with high accuracy. The one, who is be suggesting something, wouldn't be making others to learn something new, but merely variating something they are already familiar with. It's the brain of the viewers/listeners that does the "decoding" and makes them to realize something that others don't.

I'm hereby showing you one logical idea related to this, but I'd like to hear about others, too. This is based on the newer writing, published at the Medium-platform.



Figure 1 contains one part of an exposure set (node L1), which can present anything that can be sensed. Thinking about that something elicits thoughts about its traits (it's attributes), which are presented as arrows branching out from the node L1. Nodes A1, B1 and C1 are strong association connections, which have high propability to become thinked. There could be others, but for the sake of simplicity..

For something (rather) unique to become thinked, it must be triggered with "a set of thoughts" (think AND-operator). In this case Q1 and C1 are of those. Everyone of those thoughts might need multiple "hits", before they participate in anything. As you can see from the full writing about this, node F1 is also needed to trigger certain thought, but for that to happen, an additional exposure to something is required.

So.. anything that can thinked, will elicit few new thoughts and propabilities for the strongest links can be approximated by someone. That someone is supposedly the one, who is willing to show his support toward something. Naturally it is easier to approximate such, if you know your audience.

Possible situations include, but are not limited to:

- music videos
- stage acts
- tv-shows

a reply to: smarko

It's tough for me to understand the applications for this.

Real-world scenarios and illustrations would help me to better understand, but I do appreciate all of the effort and time you put into this thread. Thanks for sharing with us. I think this idea has powerful implications.

a reply to: smarko

Good points. I actually entertained a similar reasoning.

However one major variable is paramount: wether the target has been exposed to the symbols which will trigger the thought.

Different culture will have different social behaviour and thus different thought associations.

Good thread, S+F!

a reply to: swanne

Not quite.. I said "anything that can be sensed" and that certainly does include symbols, which can be seen or touched - or thought - but when you put it in that way, your latter sentence differs too much from what I said. Actually, I'd discard both of your comment lines.

a reply to: smarko

By symbol I mean any sensory input which will trigger a more complex line of thought.

I don't mean just a visual set of lines on paper - it can be a song, a scenery, an emotion, an odour, an idea, even an entire stereotype.

I've done quite a bit of psychology, so you could say I have some familiarity with the topic.

a reply to: swanne

I've done quite a bit of psychology, so you could say I have some familiarity with the topic.

If this was a conversation taking place in so-called real life, I would now ask you to proove what you just said. "done quite a bit of psychology".. what that even mean?

originally posted by: smarko

Because of the requirement "without letting everyone recognize it" and because of the possible time limit, something must be recognized without lots of effort, preferably intuitively, and with high accuracy. The one, who is be suggesting something, wouldn't be making others to learn something new, but merely variating something they are already familiar with. It's the brain of the viewers/listeners that does the "decoding" and makes them to realize something that others don't.

Parables come to mind. A stories imagery and plot can contain numerous levels of communication simultaneously. These different levels allow the narrator to tailor a message to a wider view of perspectives. Something superficial can hide a deeper truth, depending on the audience.

The beauty of this lies in the possibility of putting a message out there, while respecting individuals free will.