The messages that are sent to our subconscious mind are called subliminal messages. A subliminal message usually comes from items that are flashed on the television screens, movies screen or heard on the radio and is done at a quick rate too fast for us to identify in our conscious mind. Studies have been made in determining how the subconscious mind acknowledges to these tactics. Upon doing the study, researchers actually found out surprising outputs to it.
Market researchers during the 1950’s said that flashing invitations on a movie screen attracts viewers to buy food and drinks. The studies claimed that the flashed messages offering audience to “Drink Coca Cola” and “Eat Popcorn” were factors in increasing concession sales while the movie is going on. But further studies about mind control conclude that the mentioned claims were found to be wrong.
Experts in the field of psychology continued making tests about subliminal messaging and they found out that in order for our brain to be influenced by a subliminal message, the brain must have a reason to respond to the messages being sent to it in the first place. A study about Lipton Ice Tea had a group of participants who were divided in two groups. Group A witnessed a flashed message on a computer screen saying “Lipton Ice Tea” while group B did not. The research found that in the group that saw the flashed message only had thirsty members wanted to drink Lipton Ice Tea and the non-thirsty members of the group has not responded to the subliminal message.
A study was conducted in 1959 containing the word “Beef” in the research to see if subliminal message really does affect our subconscious mind. The first group in the study was showed the word “Beef” that was flashed at millisecond intervals, while the second group received no messages. Both groups’ shows no signs of desire for beef, but the group who got the subliminal message showed that they are hungrier than the group who did not saw the subliminal message. The subliminal message that was shown to the first group proves to have been a factor that stimulated hunger.
A study that was made at the UCL institute of Cognitive Neuroscience concluded that the participants that were involved in doing difficult tasks while being shown subliminal messages was anticipated to react than the participants who were involved in making easier tasks. The research concluded that the participants have to pay attention to the screen for the subconscious mind to receive the subliminal message. The study confronted the old belief that the brain automatically acknowledges to understand messages.
A contemporary study by Professor Nilli Lavi of UCL concluded that our brains responds more strongly to negative messages than to neutral or positive messages. According to the experts that made different studies, advertisers took advantage of the brain’s response to negative messages like showing commercials giving negative information on a competitor’s product and showing less positive statements from its advertiser.
All of this gathered information from different researches that were made by a variety of people brings more ethical questions and conclusion, but one thing is undeniable and that is the power of subliminal message.
