Priming a social/uniqueness perspective

Here is a fascinating study in the Journal of Consumer Research from a pair of Canadian marketing researchers. 

They had groups of consumers come in to watch different kinds of advertising.  They sat with their chairs configured in either a circular arrangement or an angular arrangement.  They used this to prime them either to unconsciously consider themselves one of a group or an individual.  Then they used ads that either focused on groups (families, teams) or individuals (uniqueness, minority viewpoints).

And it worked.  People who sat in the circular arrangements had higher ratings of the group-oriented ads and people who sat in angular arrangements had higher ratings of the individual-oriented ads.

There was also a social priming effect.  People who sat in the circular arrangements had higher ratings of the ads that were tagged with "90% of previous participants liked this ad" and people who sat in angular arrangements had higher ratings of the ads that were tagged with "10% of previous participants liked this ad". 

Just the arrangement of chairs can fundamentally change the way we think, at least in the short term while we are sitting in them.  If you frequently run meetings, group design collaborations, idea brainstorming etc., you might want to think a little more about how you arrange the chairs.  What prime do you want to give them?  To think independently, put them in an angular arrangement.  To come to a quicker consensus, put them in a circle.