Subliminal Messages :: essays research papers

imperceptible Messages in advertise The Case Forand Against Lisa Caswell Syracuse UniversityRunning Head subliminal Messages Subliminal electronic messaging and subliminal perception arcontroversial topics in the field of psychology. some studies have been conducted to determine ifsubliminal messaging does in fact work. numerouspeople think that subliminal messages in the field of advertise are much more successful thansubliminal messages for self-improvement, such astapes sell to help the consumer lose exercising weight, gainintelligence, or do something else to improvethemselves simply by listening to a tape. Subliminaladvertising can be defined as "embedding materialin print, audio, or video messages so faintly thatthey are not consciously perceived." Rogers andSmith (1993) surveyed 400 households. Whenasked if they gestated advertisers by choiceincluded subliminal messages, 61.5% respondedyes. A 72.2% yes answer was obtained whenasked if subliminal advertisements were effective.Based on these results, it can be concluded thatconsumers are aware of subliminal advertising, andbelieve it is effectively used by advertisers toinfluence their decisions. The term "sub-thresholdeffects," first popularized by Packard in 1957,preceded the popular notion of "subliminaladvertising," whose originator is James Vicary.Subliminal advertising first came to the publicsattention in 1957 when Jim Vicary conducted asubliminal advertising strategy of interspersing"drink Coca-Cola" and "eat popcorn" messageson a word-painting screen so quickly that they could notbe seen consciously by the audience. His researchinitially reported increases in the sales of bothCoca-Cola and popcorn as a result of thesubliminal messages. Later, however, when hewas challenged and could not reduplicate or evenproduce the results, Vicary admitted that theresults of the initial rent had been fabricated(Weir, 1984). let on (1989) has more recentlyclaim ed that hidden or embedded messages are general and effective. Keys theories havebeen widely discredited by scholars who haveexamined marketing applications scientifically(Moore, 1982). Although a few scholarly studieshave reported certain control effects of exposureto subliminal stimuli in laboratory settings(Greenwald, Klinger, and Liu, 1989), most schoolman researchers on the subject havereported findings which indicate no working orpredictable effect in an advertising setting (Dixon,1971). The 1957 Vicary study has been largelydisregarded in the scholarly community due to escapeof scientific documentation of methodology andfailure to replicate. However, scholarly findingsand industry assertions whitethorn have had little or noeffect on the middling American, who has beenexposed to popular articles and books promotingthe notion that subliminal advertising is used and iseffective. In addition, Americans have beenexposed to advertisements claiming that self-helpaudio-tapes and videotapes containing subliminalmaterials can help the purchaser with weight loss,better relationships, an improved golf game,quitting smoking, and even birth control.Awareness of Subliminal Messaging by the Public