How to avoid being primed

When I get stuck at a red light, I grumble to my passengers, ‘I always hit red lights!”

From then on, they will notice when I hit red lights and won’t notice when I make through on green.

By stating that I hit red lights, I primed my passengers to look for evidence to support it. When they see it, they experience confirmation bias and agree. When I make it through, they don’t notice as much or might write it off as being lucky that time.

The trick to priming is to focus you on things that tend to happen naturally with some frequency, so you will notice when they happen.

Most folks get stuck at red lights sometimes. The question shouldn’t be, do I get stuck at red lights? Though, that is the question I primed my passengers to answer.

The question should be, do I get stuck at red lights more than anybody else?