What Is Subliminal Perception?

Also Known As: Subliminal stimuli, subliminal messaging, subliminal advertising

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Definition:

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Subliminal perception is any information you receive from your senses that you are not consciously aware of happening.

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How Effective is Subliminal Advertising?

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Applications of subliminal stimuli often base themselves on the persuasiveness of the message. Importantly, research on action priming has shown that subliminal stimuli can trigger only actions a receiver of the message plans to perform anyway.

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However, consensus of this finding remains unsubstantiated by other research. Most actions can be triggered subliminally only if the person already has the potential to perform a specific action.[4]

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The following sections have more information on specific studies which investigate the effectiveness of subliminal stimuli. [5][6]

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Subliminal Messaging and Television

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Some studies have looked at the efficacy of subliminal messaging in television. Subliminal messages produce only one-tenth of the effects of detected messages and the findings related the effects of subliminal messaging were relatively ambiguous.[30]

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Also, participants’ ratings of positive response to commercials are not affected by subliminal messages in the commercials. [30]

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Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant. [31] Subliminally priming a brand name of a soft drink (Lipton Ice) made those who were thirsty want the Lipton Ice. However, those who were not thirsty were not influenced by the subliminal messages. [31]

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Karremans did a study assessing whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a person's choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individual's feelings of being thirsty. [31]

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In another study, participant's ratings of thirst were higher after viewing an episode of The Simpsons that contained single frames of the word "thirsty" or of a picture of a Coca-Cola can. [32]

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Some studies have shown greater effects of subliminal messaging with as high as 80% of participants showing a preference for a particular rum when subliminally primed by the name placed in an ad backward. [33]

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Many authors have continued to argue for the effectiveness of subliminal cues in changing consumption behavior, citing environmental cues as a main culprit of behavior change. [34]

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Authors who support this line of reasoning cite findings such as the research that showed slow-paced music in a supermarket was associated with more sales and customers moving at a slower pace. [35]

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Findings such as these support the notion that external cues can affect behavior, although the stimulus may not fit into a strict definition of subliminal stimuli because although the music may not be attended to or consciously affecting the customers, they are certainly able to perceive it.

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Subliminal messaging is prohibited in advertising in the United Kingdom. [36]

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See Also: priming, pre-attentive processing

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References

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21. www.monyms.ir
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36. "Section 3. Misleading-advertising". BCAP Code. Committees on Advertising Practice (CAP). 2013. Retrieved 6 January2014. "No advertisement may use images of very brief duration, or any other technique that is likely to influence consumers, without their being fully aware of what has been done."

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