The Story Behind Hidden Subliminal Messages

The concept was first introduced in 1897, but the idea became contentious as hidden subliminal messages in 1957. This is when marketing people claimed the use of hidden subliminal messages as tool in persuasion. The following battery of scientific investigation, however, failed to duplicate majority of these marketing claims outside of a mere placebo.

The technique was used in advertising to generate awareness with new products. Hidden subliminal messages transform knowledge into a fondness for the new products. Johan Karremans says that hidden subliminal messages have a profound result when the messages are goal-oriented. Johan Karremans did a study to determine whether hidden subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a person’s choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individual’s feelings of being thirsty.

The concept of hidden subliminal messages is now a business in itself. Most of these businesses claim a better memory or self-esteem while suggesting subliminal self-help tapes and CDs. These tapes or CDs did not generate an effect beyond a placebo, or an individual's expectation of their effectiveness

Though many things can be perceived from hidden subliminal messages, only a couple words or a single image of unconscious signals can really be internalized. As word or picture can be efficiently perceived, the basic features of that picture or word will generate changes in behavior. This was clearly demonstrated by an experiment conducted by Byrne in 1959. The term beef was flashed for a few millisecond intervals during a 16-minute movie to experimental subjects, while nothing was flashed to controlled subjects. There is no report on the experimental or the controlled subjects for a higher preference for beef sandwiches even when provided with a list of different foods, but the experimental subjects did rate themselves as hungrier than the controlled subjects in a given survey. If subjects were flashed with whole sentence, words would not be perceived and no effect would be generated.

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. During the 1970s, media reports raised a series of concerns of its effect on listeners, stating that demonic messages were influencing its listeners to commit suicide, murder, or any deviant action all of which were rising at the time.

The success of hidden subliminal messages has been demonstrated to prime individual responses and stimulate some emotional activity. Most research psychologists agree that hidden subliminal messages generate a potent, lasting outcome on behavior. The laboratory research shows significant, lasting effects on one’s thought. The priming of thirsty people with a subliminal message may, for an instance, make a thirst-quenching drink ad more convincing.

Research upon claims of a long-term effect such as weight loss, quitting smoking, how it can facilitate unconscious wishes in psychotherapy. In a mid-90s comparing TV ads with message using either supraliminal or subliminal, individuals form better ratings with those that were supraliminal. Unexpectedly, people were less likely to keep in mind the subliminal message than if there were no message.