Dijksterhuis, A., & van Knippenberg, A.The power of the subliminal: Subliminal perception and possible applications. Dijksterhuis, A., Aarts, H., & Smith, P.There is no scientific reason to believe it can substantially change consumer behavior. However, although subliminal perception exists, research shows the effects to be minor and usually short-lived. Perhaps because of the media attention subliminal perception and persuasion sometimes receives, most of the American population does believe subliminal persuasion to have far reaching consequences. In 1957, James Vicary claimed that he increased the sale of cola and popcorn in a New Jersey cinema by subliminally flashing “Drink Coke” and “Eat popcorn” during movies. Subliminal perception is controversial mainly because of the notion of subliminal persuasion: The strategy that may be used by marketers or politicians to deliberately influence customers or voters subliminally.
This is shown in research on the subliminal perception of short positive (e.g., sun) and negative (e.g., death) words. Perceivers can to some extent infer the valence (is something good or bad?) from subliminal stimuli. Effects of mere exposure have even been obtained for stimuli that were perceived for only one millisecond. However, a few findings are reasonably well established, the most prominent being subliminal mere exposure Repeated subliminal exposure to a stimulus (for example a picture) leads perceivers to like this picture a little more. The threshold is merely subjective.Įffects of subliminal perception are generally small and not easy to establish in controlled laboratory research. Whether a briefly presented stimulus reaches conscious awareness depends on many different factors, including individual differences. No objective threshold exists for conscious perception. The idea of an objective “threshold’ is misleading. No reliable scientific evidence exists, however, for psychological effects of auditory subliminal perception. In addition, some research has been done on auditory subliminal perception. However, such visual stimuli are processed unconsciously, and they can have brief and subtle effects on our feeling and thinking. In other words, they are not consciously aware of the presented words or pictures. For instance, one can flash words or pictures so quickly on a computer screen (generally faster than 10-15 milliseconds) that perceivers have the feeling they do not see anything at all. Most of the research on subliminal perception is done on visual subliminal perception. The term subliminal is derived from the terms sub (below) and limen (threshold), and it refers to perception so subtle it cannot reach conscious awareness.
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