Subliminal Messaging

They’re Controlling You

  • How did the buzz begin?

    • James Vicary (1957) claimed he flashed messages during movies

    • “Reported” huge sales increases of 57%

    • Later admitted he fabricated the data

    • The origin of subliminal panic is based on fraud!!

  • A wave of hysteria followed…

    • Claims of backwards messages in songs

    • Subliminal images in advertisements and movies

    • Tried to market it for improvement while you sleep

Lab Experiment (Swart & Morgan, 1992)

  • Could a backward message be perceived and understood when the music was playing forward? …And would it affect one’s behavior?

  • How did the researchers answer the question?

    • Tape recordings were played backwards to groups of college students

    • Did the students hear anything meaningful?

  • What did the researchers find?

    • Participants could not understand the backward messages at a conscious level

    • The meaning of the backward messages was not subconsciously understood

    • The backward messages did not alter the participants’ behavior

  • What do the results mean?

    • Backward messages are not consciously or unconsciously understood

    • Backward messages do not influence behavior

How Does Recognition Occur?

  • Bottom-up processing

    • Basic information units that serve as a foundation for recognition

  • Top-down processing

    • Guided by knowledge, expectations, and other psychological factors

    • Higher-level cognitive processes involved

    • Motivation can affect perception