The title of the infographic is, Thinking Critically About: Subliminal Sensation and Subliminal Persuasion
The Learning Objective Question reads, How are we affected by subliminal stimuli?
The heading text in the first panel reads, We can be affected by subliminal sensations – stimuli so weak that we don’t consciously notice them. A subheading reads, Researchers use priming to activate unconscious associations.
Text and illustrations of a priming experiment follow. One illustration shows a man viewing a desktop screen with an image of kittens superimposed over a man’s face. Another illustration shows a man viewing a desktop screen with an image of a werewolf superimposed over a man’s face. Between the two illustrations is the word open quotes OR close quotes. The text reads, Participant views slides of people and offers either favorable or unfavorable ratings of each person. BUT an instant before each slide appears, the trickster researcher subliminally flashes another image – either pleasant (for example kittens), or unpleasant (for example, a werewolf). Participants consciously perceive these images only as flashes of light. There is an illustration of a grinning researcher writing down his observations.
A heading reads, Will participants’ ratings of the faces be affected? Yes! (Footnote 1: Krosnick et al., 1992.) Two illustrations follow. The first, A man’s face with the kittens image superimposed over it. The caption reads, More favorable ratings of people. The second, A man’s face with the werewolf image superimposed over it. The caption reads, More unfavorable ratings of people. The text at the bottom of the panel reads, Our two-track mind: Priming happens even though the viewer’s brain does not have time to consciously perceive the flashed images. We may evaluate a stimulus even when we are not consciously aware of it. (Footnote 2: Ferguson & Zayas, 2009.)
The heading text in the second panel reads, So, we can be primed, but can we be persuaded by subliminal stimuli, for example to lose weight, stop smoking, or improve our memory? Three illustrations are shown. The first illustration shows a woman frowning because of the smoke coming from a cigarette; the second illustration shows a ribbon tied around a weighing scale; and the third illustration shows a quiz paper with a 100 percent mark on it.
Text reads, Audio and video messages subliminally (without recipients’ conscious awareness) announce: Open quotes I am thin, close quotes Open quotes Cigarette smoke tastes bad, close quotes and open quotes I do well on tests. I have total recall of information. Close quotes. An arrow from there points to a text that reads, Results from 16 experiments (Footnote 3: Greenwald et al., 1991, 1992) showed no powerful, enduring influence on behavior. Not one of the recordings helped more than placebo, which works only because we believe it will.