The Effects of Subliminal Messages

What drives consumers to purchase a specific product?.

A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems. The termsubliminal means "beneath a limen" (sensory threshold). This is from the Latin words sub, meaning under, and limen, meaning threshold.
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Contents

1 Forward 2 Introduction to Subliminal Messages 3 Inquiry Question 4 Related Questions 5 Key Terms and Definitions 6 Historical and Cultural Background 7 Associated Psychologists 8 The Effects of Subliminal Messages on Human Behaviour

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8.1 Visual Effect 8.2 Auditory Effect

9 Examples of Subliminal Messages 10 Annotated Bibliography 11 Other References

Forward

The following report contains academically acclaimed articles, studies and experiments that give a thorough understanding of subjects directly related to the topic of the psychological effect of subliminal messages on consumer behavior. The central idea of subliminal messaging has been utilized, critiqued and modified by multiple fields; however, the largest application of this idea has been in the field of product advertising. This topic is of great interest not only because of its widespread cultural influence and the investments made in order to use this effect but also because of controversies that go as far questioning the existence of such an effect in the first place.

Introduction to Subliminal Messages

Subliminal is the term used to define a stimulus that is produced below the threshold level of conscious awareness. Subliminal messages are signal that the conscious mind do not perceive but have an influence on the unconscious mind . In other words, the messages transmitted can be perceived by the unconscious mind but not by the conscious one. The subliminal messages reach the unconscious mind in two ways; visual and auditory means. What is the relationship of subliminal messages to consumers behaviour? Behaviour is the observable traits of human such as their actions and responses to stimuli. The relationship between subliminal messages to behaviour is that those signals perceived by the unconscious mind without our awareness, can have either a negative or positive impact or both on our behaviour. The use of subliminal messages supports the Freudian belief that an individual can act and behave based on unconscious causes. Subliminal stimuli are the carefully crafted methods of reaching an individuals subconsiousness which takes what it perceives without rationalizing or filtering the information according to specific schemas.
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Inquiry Question

"What are the psychological effects of subliminal messages on North American consumer behaviour?" Through various media and cultural forms, North American consumers are constantly being influenced on which product to purchase. Multimillion dollar marketing firms collect data on market consumption and habits in order to maximize returns for companies across the world. How does psychology apply to this media craze? Specifically, do subliminal messages play a role on affecting North American consumer behaviour?

Related Questions

To what extent does advertisements affect consumer's choice of brands? What are some ethical concerns raised by the use of subliminal messages? If subliminal messages work, how can they be used therapeutically? How do we regulate subliminal messaging? Is subliminal messaging just a myth? How do we educate people about subliminal messaging?

Key Terms and Definitions

Stimulus - An external factor (the environment or a specific phenomenon in the environment) that influences a psychological response (i.e. a specific behavior).

Consciousness - This term has many different meanings but for the purpose of this research it simply refers to the state in which an individual is aware and responsive of the external stimuli.

Limen - Is a threshold of physiological and psychological response. The stimuli that cross this threshold are experienced by the individual on a conscious level (the senses of the individual lead to the awareness of these stimuli).

Subliminal - This term literally means beneath a limen. Being beneath the sensory threshold (limen) refers to the fact that stimuli that are not strong enough to cross the sensory threshold are only experienced by the unconscious sublime. The individual is not aware of these stimuli but adding on to the Freudian idea of the unconscious these stimuli, although not detected by the consciousness of the individual can subconsciously influence the individuals behavior.

Schema - A mental idea about particular situations or phenomena based on previous experiences. Once a schema is constructed in an individual's mind he/she tends to filter and fit all new information related to the earlier schema accordingly. An example of this would be having a north American idea (schema) of the different parts of a story ( Beginning, conflict, climax) and fitting stories that do not follow the specific format (native story) into the existing schema. This term is of importance to this topic because many advertisers work hard to avoid existing schemas that exist in the conscious mind and try to create a new subconscious schema, of which an individual is unaware of until he/she starts associating the specific product to that schema without even realizing it.

Priming - This is a technique or an effect that occurs when previous stimuli influence the response of an individual to later stimuli. This term is of importance to this research because there are a number of studies on subliminal messages that have observed that priming is a factor that directly influences a persons ability to respond to subliminal messages.

Historical and Cultural Background

Vicary sent subliminal messages to viewers in a theatre to Eat Popcorn and Drink Coke.

In 1957, Vance Packard, an American author and journalist, wrote a book titled The Hidden Persuaders which was about how advertisers used controlling or manipulative techniques to influence and induce the desire for consumers to buy their product, how politicians used those techniques to persuade citizens to vote for them during elections and questioned about whether this is an ethical method to use. The work of this author became so popular and had a huge impact on the perspectives of people worldwide, and it gave rise to the term subliminal messages. The book also covered an experiment conducted in 1957 by James Vicary, a market researcher, in a theatre. The material used to carry out this experiment was a tachistoscope; a device that projects a sequence of images onto a screen at a fast speed in order to test memory and visual perception. With this device, the following messages were flashes onto the screen for every five seconds Drink Coca-Cola and Hungry? Eat Popcorn and they lasted for 1/3000 second which is in the stratum below the threshold level of conscious awareness. The results of this experiment was that both the Coca-Cola and the popcorn sales increased dramatically and it was concluded that it illustrated the power of subliminal advertising since the consumers were persuaded into buying these products. The Vicary experiment caused a public outrage at that time and it resulted in the law to prohibit the use of subliminal techniques in advertising products and television broadcast. In 1958, the US Federal Communication Commission conducted a similar experiment to find out if subliminal messages really existed and if it influences peoples perception and behaviour without their awareness and it did not work. This led to James Vicary to repeat his experiment in order to prove that it is not a hoax and he failed to acquire the expected results. He later declared that he fabricated the results of the experiment in 1962. Moreover, in 1973, Wilson Bryan Key, an author who was dedicated to write about subliminal advertising and subliminal messages, caused another public outrage when one of his book was published Subliminal Seduction. He argued that the power of subliminal advertising and messages lies in the slight twist of the cultural environment which in turn influences the unconscious mind of individuals. Moreover, people started to take advantage of subliminal messages to avoid thefts and this example can be demonstrated in the music of Musak which composed of anti-theft messages. It was devised in the year 1979 and according to records; it proved to decrease the number of thefts occurring by 37%. In 1990, there was a case where two teenage boys committed suicide after listening to the Judas Priest song Better by you, better than me and the latter was accused for murder because according to those who believed in the existence of subliminal messages, the song meant do it.

Associated Psychologists

E. W. Scripture published The New Psychology in 1898, which described the basic principles of subliminal messages.

In 1900, Knight Dunlap, an American professor of psychology, flashed an "imperceptible shadow" to subjects while showing them a Mller-Lyer illusion containing two lines with pointed arrows at both ends which create an illusion of different lengths. Dunlap claimed that the shadow influenced his subjects subliminally in their judgment of the lengths of the lines. Although these results were not verified in a scientific study, American psychologist Harry Levi Hollingworth reported in an advertising textbook that such subliminal messages could be used by advertisers. In 1957, James Vicary, a market researcher from the University of Michigan is performed an experiment in a theatre in Fort Lee, New Jersey. His "Eat popcorn/drink Coca-Cola" study pioneered subliminal advertising. In 1970s, Anthony Marcel, a British psychologist conducted an experiment on subliminal priming. Subliminal priming is defined as the effect of a primary stimulus that is accessible below the threshold level of consciousness. In this experiment, participants were to identify and classify a letter string. It was observed that when a semantically related word was preceded, the participants could rapidly categorize the letter string. His experiment was based on prior studies that a stimulus is facilitated when the stimulus follows a related stimulus and the experimenters used pictures and spoken words as stimulus. His conclusions were as follows: "These other stimuli do prime or facilitate the following decisions when they are presented in an atmosphere that makes it hard to distinguish one stimulus from another stimulus. The belief is that the substantial information is perceived even when observers have little or no awareness of perceiving as shown by their difficulty in discriminating one stimulus from another stimulus." Wilson Bryan Key was the author of several books about subliminal advertising and subliminal messages. Controversial from the start, the books were widely read, particularly at universities, where he would often lecture. He obtained his doctorate in communications from the University of Denver and taught journalism for a short period of time at the University of Western Ontario.

The Effects of Subliminal Messages on Human Behaviour

This diagram gives an explanation of how memory works which is why it is also very useful to explain how subliminal messages work. Subliminal stimuli that are placed in advertisements are created to enter the sensory memory, however, due to the fact that individuals are only conscious of three to seven things at a time the subliminal messages are not brought into the individual's attention. [3] Liminal messages on the other hand do come into the attention of the individual and enter the short term memory. This provides an explanation for why it is important to repeat the subliminal effect in order for it to make an impact on at least the subconscious mind.

Owing to the fact that the subconscious has greater power over the conscious mind and that the former is more susceptible to be prone to subliminal messages, an individuals behaviour is accordingly affected. The effect of subliminal messages on behaviour depends partly on the state of mind the individual is in, for instance, if the individual is in a theta or alpha state, which is a condition of the mind which occurs mostly during meditation, he is more likely to be affected. Therefore, taking in messages unconsciously under the right state of mind tends to bring about a change to the conscious mind. This conscious change, both alertly and reflexively, makes the individual adapt to the message respectively. As the adaption occurs, physical and behavioural changes, whether

subtle or drastic, can be noticed. There seems to exist a cycle through which the individual accept the messages unconsciously, brings it to the conscious mind, and adapt to the messages while keeping in check with the messages to make sure that they are being properly followed. Eventually, these messages become more and more concretely instilled in the individuals mind until it becomes a normal frame of mind. Thus, subliminal messages do influence the behaviour of a person without his/her consciousness, although the extent of its effects cannot be analyzed due to external influences. The fact that subliminal messages work is more of a myth. Along with the fact that James Vicary admitted that he falsified results of his Eat Popcorn/Drink Coke study, there has been evidence that subliminal messages have had little effect on consumer decision (Broyles 2006, Trappey 1998, Vokey 2002). In Karremans et al. (2006), they managed to show that subliminal messaging slightly revealed its effect only on those that were thirsty.

Visual Effect
Karremans et al. (2006) performed a visual study which used the drink Lipton Ice as the prime for the experiment. They began with a control experiment where the participants were not aware of a prime in existence. What resulted was that no participant identified the prime Lipton Ice in their visual test. Afterwards, an experiment was performed with the participants were aware that a prime existed. Once again, no participants were able to detect the correct prime, Lipton Ice, in the visual test. Order was then tested by Karremans et al. (2006), with participants choosing between two brands by preference. The brand Lipton Ice was placed on the left and the brand Spa Rood was placed on the right. Once again, no order preference revealed itself. Next, participants were placed in a scenario, If you were sitting on a terrace now, how likely is it that you would order Lipton Ice? [1=not likely at all, 7=very likely], I would like to drink Lipton Ice at this moment [1=not at all, 7=very likely]. Participants were then asked how thirsty they were. The result was that those that were thirsty were likely to choose Lipton Ice. The experiment was done with Coca-Cola and Spa Rood as well with similar results.

Auditory Effect
Subliminal auditory help tapes are similar to subliminal advertising in its goal, to persuade the users decision. Subliminal auditory help tapes have the nobler objective of psychotherapy. However, what you dont get is anything that will result in dramatic improvements in physical or mental well-being. As of yet, there is no empirical support for the alleged therapeutic results of these tapes. In an experiment by Pratkanis et al. (1990) , volunteers interested in the potential of subliminal tapes were asked to participate in a study of the effectiveness of the tapes to promote either self-esteem or improved memory. According to the manufacturer, the self-esteem tape contained messages such as I have high self-worth and high self-esteem, and the memory tape messages such as My ability to remember and recall is increasing daily. Volunteers first filled out measures of self-esteem and memory, and then proceeded to use either the esteem or the memory tape according to the manufacturers instructions every day for 5 weeks. Although onehalf of the subjects received their tapes with the correct instructions, the other half received the tapes with the instructions for the other tape: memory instructions for the self-esteem tape, and vice versa. After the 5 weeks, subjects again filled out the esteem and memory measures, and also indicated whether they believed the tape they had received to have been effective. The results were that the tapes produced no effect whatsoever on either self-esteem or memory, regardless whether the correct or incorrect instructions had been received. However, the subjects believed the tapes to have been effective, indicating that they thought their self-esteem had improved if they thought they had received a self-esteem tape (regardless of whether or not they had), and that their memory had improved, if that was the

tape they thought they had received (again, regardless of whether or not they had). Pratkanis et al. (1990) called this effect on belief the illusory placebo effect, and it demonstrates one reason why testimonial or anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of some product or treatment (e.g., it worked for me!) is almost always worthless.

Examples of Subliminal Messages

This video clipshows the use of subliminal messages in internationally famous music listened to by a variety of age groups. This video is a good example of the extent to which subliminal messages can be hidden and after what point they are too hidden to have an effect at all. All of these are examples of audio subliminal messages. This video cliphas a collection of advertisements that show the use of subliminal messages to create a certain (usually sexual) appeal for the product being advertised. Although some examples are quite clear when pointed out others remain somewhat hidden even after being pointed out by the maker of the video. These are all examples of visual subliminal messages. This is the video of the song by Judas Priest, Better than you, Better than methat was reported as having influenced a wave of suicide attempts upon its listeners. This videoshows an experiment being conducted by a famous psychological illusionist named Darren Brown. In this video Brown shows the viewers how subliminal messages can be used to lead to a particular behavior. This experiment shows the extent to which this technique can be used resulting into very precise and accurately calculated effects. It is shown that in order for subliminal messages to be effective they must be repeated several times during a specific time period.

Annotated Bibliography

Article Title: A study on the Effect and Priming Effect of subliminal perception and subliminal advertising Authors: Wendian, S., Gaofeng, Z., Zhi, L. Journal Title: Psychological Science - Shanghai Publisher: Editorial Board of Psychological Science

This article is about an experiment conducted to determine whether an effect would be produced if subliminal perception or subliminal advertising were experimented solely on the group participants. Subliminal perception is the term used to describe those stimuli perceived without being conscious and subliminal advertising is when advertisers use subliminal techniques to influence the consumers choice unconsciously into buying their products. It has been concluded that subliminal perception and subliminal advertising would produce no effect if employed alone. In my opinion, this article concludes how subliminal perception and subliminal advertising have to occur together, for an effect to happen, such as if there is an advertisement being displayed on the television, the viewer will have to perceive the image and message of what the advert is trying to deliver in order to better comprehend the

unconscious message received by subliminal advert. It illustrates how a consumer can be easily influenced due to subliminal advertising and perception.

Article Title: A study on the Effect and Priming Effect of subliminal perception and subliminal advertising Authors: Trappey, C Journal Title: Psychology and Marketing Trappey, C. (1998). A meta-analysis of consumer choice and subliminal advertising. Psychology and Marketing, 13(5), 517-530.

Trappey does a statistical analysis on the ineffectiveness of subliminal advertising to influence the consumers decision between alternatives. The data collected came from a wide range of previous studies. Trappey calculates correlation coefficients of the data and concluded that subliminal advertising was ineffective in influencing consumer choice.

Article Title: Self-validation of cognitive responses to advertisements Authors: Briol, P., Petty, R., Tormala, Z. Journal Title: Journal of Consumer Research Briol, P., Petty, R., Tormala, Z. (2004). Self-validation of cognitive responses to advertisements. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(4), 559-573.

Briol et al. performed two studies to test the notion that the confidence consumers have in their cognitive responses to an ad can increase or decrease the favourability of product attitudes. Experiment 1 was designed to study natural variations in thought confidence as a determinant of consumer persuasion. In experiment 1, participants were exposed to relatively strong or weak arguments. The extent to which participants had confidence in their thoughts were then measured. Experiment 2 was designed to test the notion that source credibility can also influence persuasion through a new and previously unexplored mechanism based on variations in thought confidence. All participants were exposed to an ad promoting phosphate-based laundry detergents and were asked to list their thoughts about it. The ad was presented on a computer and contained either strong or moderate arguments in favor of phosphate-based laundry detergents Increasing confidence in positive thoughts enhanced advertisement effectiveness. Increasing confidence in negative thoughts reduced advertisement effectiveness.

Article Title: Subliminal advertising and the perpetual popularity of playing to peoples paranoia Authors: Broyles, S. Journal Title: The Journal of Consumer Affairs

Broyles, S. (2006). Subliminal advertising and the perpetual popularity of playing to peoples paranoia. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 40(2), 392.

Broyles papers reviews nearly 50 years of research on subliminal advertising. Broyles begins in 1957 where subliminal messaging directed audiences in the theatre to eat popcorn and drink Coca-Cola. It covers subliminal messages in many categories including George W. Bushs campaign ads and the very common subliminal message of SEX hidden in a picture of an ice cube. It mainly reviews research that has been done on subliminal messaging such as ones done by author August Bollock in the book The Secret Sales Pitch: An Overview of Subliminal Advertising. Broyles concludes that most influences are only obtained in highly artificial situations and no research has shown an effect that changed attitudes or impacted purchasing behaviour.

Article Title: Subliminal messages Authors: Vokey, J. R. Journal Title: Psychological Sketches Vokey, J. R. (2002). Subliminal messages. In John R. Vokey and Scott W. Allen (Eds.), Psychological Sketches (6th Edition), 223-246.

Vokey reviews some of the more popular studies of subliminal advertising. He begins with the most cited Vicary Eat Popcorn/Drink Coke study. He then reviews the effect that Mad Max, Alf and Garfield had in subliminal advertising followed by some background and other famous studies on subliminal advertising. He concludes that there is no evidence for effective subliminal persuasion in film or video, advertising, self-help audiotapes, or rock music, and there is certainly no theoretical basis to expect it.

Article Title: Beyond Vicary's fantasies: the impact of subliminal priming and brand choice Authors: Claus, J., Karremans, J.C., Stroebe, W. Journal Title: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Claus, J., Karremans, J.C., Stroebe, W. (2006). Beyond Vicary's fantasies: the impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 42(6), 792-798.

As well as discussing the Vicary study, Claus et al. perform two studies of their own on subliminal advertising. Participants in Study 1 were subliminally primed with Lipton Ice or a control word, after which they chose between Lipton Ice and another beverage (Spa Rood), and indicated their intentions to drink Lipton Ice. Level of thirst was measured with a self-report scale. Study 2 was designed to extend and complement the findings of Study 1. Study 2 manipulated (and not simply measured) level of thirst of participants. The results were that exposing individuals subliminally to the brand name of a drink increases the probability that they will choose this drink, provided that they are thirsty.

Article Title: Effectiveness of subliminal messages in television commercials: Two experiments Authors: Smith, Kirk H., Rogers, M. Journal Title: Journal of Applied Psychology Smith, K. H.& Rogers, M. (1994). Effectiveness of subliminal messages in television commercials: Two experiments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(6), 866-874.

This article is a report of an investigation (2 experiments) that studies the impact of subliminal messages in television advertising on consumer behavior. This article is particularly of importance because rather than just focusing on the existence of the effect of subliminal messages on consumer behavior it also takes into account the extent to which this effect has an impact on the consumer behavior. Also, the experiments described raise the question of whether the effect of these messages is positive or negative for the product. This aspect is of great interest to advertisers since it determines whether the effort and money put into placing the messages is enhancing the product or distracting the consumers. This article directly connects to the thesis question because it covers a large area of information related to this topic since it studies one of the most influential mediums which impacts consumer behavior: Television Advertising. Understanding the strength of the connection between consumer behavior and subliminal messages through television advertising helps determine the significance of studying such topics as well.

Article Title: Can you sell subliminal messages to consumers? Authors: Martin P., Bergh, V., Bruce G. Journal Title: Journal of Advertising Block, M.P. & Vanden Bergh, B. G. (1985). Can you sell subliminal messages to consumers? Journal of Advertising, 14(3), 59-62.

This article reports the results of a telephone survey that was conducted in order to find out the opinions of consumers about the use of subliminal messages in advertisements. Many external factors such as familial problems, education and prior use of technology were considered in constructing the questions of the survey. Results of the survey show that the particular factors that were taken into account had a direct connection to whether the use of subliminal messages in advertisements was deemed appropriate by the consumer or not. This article is quite helpful and precise in serving its objective of explaining the different attitudes of consumers and the potential causes for these attitudes. Consumers are one of the main targets when it comes to using the technique of subliminal messaging. Therefore, it is not only crucial but also ethical to understand what stand point the consumers take on the use of this technique on them and why they support their specific view.

Article Title: Persistent Complex Subliminal Activation Effects: First Experimental Observations Authors: Sohlberg, Staffan, Birgegard, Andreas Journal Title: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Sohlberg, S. & Birgegard, A. (2003). Persistent complex subliminal activation effects: First experimental observations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 302-316.

This article reports the results of five experiments that were conducted in order to study how long effects of unconscious priming through the use of subliminal messages persist. The key factors emphasized in this article include: the correlation between the subliminal messages and the specific subject the messages are directed to (idea of self and mother), and attachment, memories and schemas related to the subject. This article is a good source of information because it provides data from five different experiments that provide the first reliable findings which prove the persistence and the complex effects of subliminal stimulation. Also, ethical concerns are raised about whether subliminal stimulus should be used at all, since their purpose is to influence some sort of change in an individual's behavior without him/her knowing (specifically in this study one of the experiments correlated depression and the "mother and i" subliminal message showing that depending on the individual's schema and memories concerning their mother some had an effect on the depression level). Although this article is not directly about consumers and subliminal effects in advertising, it is still of great significance because amongst the many controversies questioning the effectiveness of such an effect this article remains one of the rear articles explaining and supporting the existence of the subliminal effect. Information from this study contributes to the research by providing the researcher with an understanding of the circumstances and the conditions that must be met in order for such a technique to be effective however; some of the conditions do raise ethical concerns.

Article Title: Subliminal Advertising: What you see is what you get Authors: Moore, T. E. Journal Title: American Marketing Association

The paper by Timothy E. Moore provides evidence and arguments in support of the effectiveness of various subliminal advertising techniques. Moore suggests that such practices are able to influence an individuals consumption habits subconsciously through subliminal advertisements. This paper effectively outlines the limitations of subliminal advertisements but indicate its results using various cases.

Article Title: Neuromarketing, Subliminal Messages,

and Freedom of Speech Authors: Blitz, M. Website Title: An interdisciplinary forum for legal and ethical issues related to the mind and brain Blitz, M. (May 14, 2009). Neuromarketing, Subliminal Messages, and Freedom of Speech. In Neuroethics & Law Blog. An interdisciplinary forum for legal and ethical issues related to the mind and brain. Retrieved May 24, 2009, from http://kolber.typepad.com/ethics_law_blog/2009/05/n euromarketing-subliminal-messages-and-freedomof-speech-blitz.html.

This article is about the ethical concerns linked to the use of subliminal messages in advertising. According to the article if subliminal messages do in fact, hold the power to control and influence behavior then people who are the creators of these messages are exercising power over consumers and infringing their basic rights and freedoms. The author mentions that the freedom of speech and expression is a freedom that was intended to liberate each individual but if advertisers use their freedom in a manner that gives them control over other individuals then the purpose of that freedom is lost. Also the, right to be free from unwanted speech is infringed upon if the individuals arent even made aware of what ideas they are unconsciously being influenced by. This article also gives many examples of court cases concerning negative results from the use of subliminal messages. This article is very well written and all the arguments made are strongly supported with legal evidence. This source is of great importance because it gives many examples that help answer the research question. Also, this article brings into perspective a very important side of the topic (the legal side). After all it is the laws in the end that will determine how this technique will be used and weather it will be used at all.

Article Title: Double-blind tests of subliminal self-help audiotapes Authors: Greenwald, A., Spangenberg, E., Pratkanis, A., Eskenazi, J. Journal Title: Psychological Science Greenwald, A., Spangenberg, E., Pratkanis, A., Eskenazi, J. (1990). Double-blind tests of subliminal self-help audiotapes. Psychological Science 2(2). 119-122.

Three replications of a double -blind experiment tested subliminal audiotape products that were claimed to improve memory or to increase self-esteem. Conditions of use adhered to manufacturers' recommendations, and subjects were limited to persons who desired the effects offered by the tapes. Actual content and labelled content of tapes were independently varied, so that some subjects who

believed they were using memory tapes were actually using self-esteem tapes, and vice versa. After a month of use, neither the memory nor the self-esteem tapes produced their claimed effects. Nevertheless, a general improvement for all subjects in both memory and self-esteem (a non-specific placebo effect) was observed, and more than a third of the subjects had the illusion of improvement specific to the domain named on the tape's label.

Other References

1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S ubliminal_messages

2.

http://www.answers.com/subl iminal

3.

http://www.articlesnatch.com/ Article/Subliminal-MessagesAnd-Advertising/377875

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