Pavlovian Association

Conditional reflexes that are taught or learnt sub-consciously.

The psychological tendency to associate one thing with another.

This tendency includes the bias from Authority as described by Robert Cialdini, which is a tendency not to think for oneself but rely on thinking done by an authority figure (or organisation). As an authority figure is associated with better decision making, the Authority bias is Pavlovian association. In case of organisations, this tendency explains the power of Marketing Brands.

“Pavlov’s most famous experiment showed that dogs tend to salivate before food is actually delivered to their mouths. This result led him to a long series of experiments in which he manipulated the stimuli occurring before the presentation of food. He thereby established the basic laws for the establishment and extinction of what he called ‘conditional reflexes’, later mistranslated from the original Russian as ‘conditioned reflexes’. In Pavlovian conditioning, powerful effects come from mere association. The neural system of Pavlov’s dog causes it to salivate at the bell it can’t eat.” Poor Charlie`s Almanack by Peter Kaufmann