Demystifying priming

Throughout the recent controversy surrounding social psychology's priming literature, critics of these findings have suggested that the effects are 'magic' and based on untenable mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate how the Situated Inference Model [1] demystifies priming. Using the model, we describe how surprising and illogical priming effects can actually emerge from a simple mechanism that generally produces adaptive behavior. In addition, we highlight how this mechanism is based on a set of well-established cognitive processes, fundamental psychological principles that have been documented across many of the field's sub-disciplines. After outlining the model and elaborating on the pervasive role of these core processes, we describe the model's primary contributions, including its ability to guide paradigm creation. We conclude by describing recent data that supports the model, focusing on a robust within-subjects task that produces highly replicable behavioral priming effects.