In a recent episode of the Amazing Race, one contestant mixed up Joan of Arc with Noah and that got me thinking, why did that happen? How is it possible to mix up such key male and female figures? The contestant kept insisting that Joan of Arc was the MAN who built the ark for the animals and her partner had to tell her that the person she was actually talking about was Noah, from the Bible. The only reason for her to mix it up and for me as a Singaporean to think that is ridiculous, is due to the way in which we are lexically primed. As an American, she probably has some sort of religious background as she knows about Noah and the ark, which explains her referring to that story when she hears the word "arc". For myself, my being a Christian and also having background knowledge on French history primed me in a way that the two would not be mixed up and hence explains my reaction to what I saw.
Check out a recap here!
Amazing Race Recap
