In fact, a 1988 study found that 80 to 90 percent of Americans are aware of subliminal stimulation and up to two-thirds of them believe it works. “The take home message is subliminal messages are not effective, but a lot of people think they are,” he says. But Pratkanis had switched the labels on several of the tapes, so he calculates their response was based only on their perceptions that subliminal messages are effective. He explains when he asked the subjects if they thought their memories had improved, about half said an overwhelming yes - if their tapes had been labeled as the memory-improving tapes. “There were absolutely no changes in the scores,” he reports, “but we also found people thought they were effective.” Then he had them listen to the tapes and fill out the same forms again. Pratkanis asked a group of people to respond to questions about their memory and self-esteem. One set of tapes was designed to promote self-esteem, another set claimed to improve memory. For his tests, Pratkanis took tapes that had subliminal messages planted in otherwise calming audio of music and natural sounds. In the mid-1980s, Pratkanis tested the effectiveness of subliminal messages in another media - self-help recordings. “Even though they’ve been proven ineffective, people seem to think they work.”
“Fascination with subliminal advertising really amazes me,” says Pratkanis. When psychologists later tried to duplicate the study and failed, the marketing entrepreneur admitted he’d made it all up. The example is often mentioned in psychology textbooks, says Anthony Pratkanis, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz.īut what is often not mentioned, he says, is that Vicary’s study was a hoax. The news sparked public outrage, fear and even talk of a ban by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He claimed even though no one actually noticed the images, the messages reached the subconscious of the viewers and triggered an increase of popcorn and Coke sales by 57 percent. The concept of subliminal advertising first made a splash in 1957 when a marketer named James Vicary said he had subjected moviegoers to split-second messages urging them to drink Coca-Cola and eat popcorn. What’s more, many psychologists argue that even if it had been an accurate use of subliminal advertising, it probably wouldn’t have worked. That’s why Key and other psychologists argue the G.O.P ad that clearly flashes the word “RATS” as a narrator criticizes democratic health care programs is either a botched attempt at subliminal messaging or a coincidence. They are intended to work by tapping the unconscious mind of viewers or listeners and influencing them to think or feel a certain way. Subliminal messages are only subliminal if people don’t realize what they’ve seen. “The name of the game is don’t get caught,” says Key, who has authored several books about subliminal advertising including The Age of Manipulation.
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