Subliminal Messages

Abstract

Subliminal messages are tools that are used in daily life without people noticing them. It corresponds to words, sounds, or even images that impact people’s behavior and thoughts. Because of subliminal messages, people act and think a way they consciously wouldn’t. So far, scientists have stated that subliminal messages are very manipulative and persuasive. In this paper, we will discuss the biopsychosocial effect of subliminal messages and their impact and effectiveness on behavior.

Subliminal messages are defined by scientists as visual or oral messages that go to our subconscious mind first. Afterwards, they may go to our conscious but it is not often the case. However, some researches have found that subliminal messages do not impact behavior at all and that people are not influenced by this type of message (Schlaghecken, F. et al., 2004). On the other hand, very recent researches have shown the contrary. Let’s explore the biopsychosocial aspects of subliminal messages in order to debate about their validity.

Many old experiments demonstrated the inefficiency of subliminal messages. To illustrate, doctors Margaret Treimer and Michael Simonson from the Iowa State University presented a study to examine the impact of subliminal messages on weight loss. They made two healthy and physically active groups of people watch two different videos about hypno-vision weight loss daily during thirty days. The purpose was to watch their FIR(Food Intake Recall) and also their FEAT( Food and Exercise Attitude Test) and to compare them at the end of the experiment. The first video contained vocal and visual subliminal messages and the other was the same concerning its content but without subliminal messages. By the end of the month, they observed a meaningless difference in FIR and FEAT between the two groups of people. They concluded that subliminal messages had no influence on their weight or no influence at all on their behaviours. (Treimer M. et al., 1988). Moreover, some scientists explored the psycho part of subliminal messages. It is called the placebo effect. In other words, if people think that subliminal messages do impact our subconscious brain, it is only because they think they know subliminal messages influence our subconscious mind and not because subliminal messages do go to our subconscious. It is only psychological (Froufe M. et al., 2011).

However, a biological experiment made in 2012 goes against the fact that subliminal messages have no impact on our behavior. By using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), scientists discovered that subliminal messages do activate some parts of the brain that are independent to consciousness level. Indeed, they have observed the activation of the amygdala, which is responsible for emotional memory. They also stated that those messages activate hippocampus, which role is to store memories (long term memories storage). Scientists also noticed that subliminal faces have the greatest impact on our subconscious mind while written subliminal messages do not have a great impact. To prove the idea that subliminal messages do influence subconsciousness, scientists also used Regions Of Interest analysis (ROI), which role is to check the validity of the fMRI. In this study, they could see if the group of people tested was either biased or not. The results stated

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