Chapter 8. Subliminal Sensation and Subliminal Persuasion

Researchers have flashed unperceived subliminal (sub-threshold) stimuli to people’s eyes. They do so to see if such stimuli can prime (activate) people’s unconscious associations to an ensuing perceived stimulus, such as someone’s picture.

Positive or negative subliminal images (flashed too briefly to be perceived) can prime participants’ responses, affecting their ratings of a later perceived stimulus. Thus, a seen-but-not-perceived werewolf image can lead a participant to rate a subsequent photo of a person less favorably.

Experiments show that subliminal messages (such as to “stop smoking”) have no substantial, lasting effect. It seems we can be subtly affected by subliminal stimuli but not persuaded or manipulated by them.