Do subliminal messages really work? Maybe only in Israel?
"Who would want me, who?" Cried on the shoulders of my good friend A, when we sat at the bar in the neighborhood Cinta-Bar restaurant.
Wait, déjà vu?
"Say, didn't we already do this a week ago?I asked A. "And I actually remember that you were doing well then."
He thought for a moment. "Yes, and that girl is really great. The best thing that happened to me. But it's hard to get over the habit, you know." He stopped. "Wait, are you going to write about that too?"
"Yes," I answered honestly. "Probably so. Depends on whether we get to talk about some good research in the process."
"Then do me a favor, and take me out a little less embarrassed this time. I might show it to my grandchildren one day, and I don't want them to be ashamed of their grandfather."
I hesitated. "You do realize that after a sentence like that there isn't much I can do to get you out of the way, right?"
"Well, so what came out. Just don't forget - I am A. And tell me, do Cinta Bar even reward you for all this free advertising?"
"Not even a penny. I'm not sure they're even aware that I'm writing about them. Still, a science blog might not be the best place to advertise a steakhouse. Even if she is the best in town and all that."
"In the end they will take us in, don't worry. Just keep sneaking hidden messages into every article, without the readers noticing, and in the end we'll still get free hamburgers here every week."
"Speaking of sneaking hidden messages into articles," I said, "did you hear that two years ago they discovered that subliminal messages are not as effective as they thought, but more effective than they thought?"
He paused for a moment, and sipped a mouthful from the lemonade glass in front of him. Bruce Springtin was singing an old song about love in the background, and suddenly I couldn't help but envy A at that moment. I'm trying to save up before the wedding, but he found a job in high-tech, and can afford to order his own glass of lemonade: frozen lemonade, crushed into ice and finely chopped mint added, which stimulates the palate and throat. I could only imagine the cool, sweet-sour taste that graced his taste buds at that moment. There is no doubt - a real Limonene can only be found in Cinta Bar. After a long moment, in which A tried to control the thrill of pleasure that went through him, he managed to put the glass back on the table. "not really no. What kind of subliminal messages do you mean? Telepathy and all that?”
"No, I mean the kind of messages they used to put in movie theaters, between pictures."
"Ah, now I remember. There was some guy who did a big experiment on this in the middle of the century. He showed people a movie, but between the frames he put pictures that encouraged the viewers to drink Coca-Cola and eat popcorn. The viewers did not even know that the images appeared in the film, because they passed so quickly that their conscious mind did not have time to process them. But during the break, people really bought more popcorn and Coca-Cola."
I nodded. "By and large you are right. His name was Vicari, and he didn't post pictures but subliminal text messages - thirsty? Drink Coca-Cola! hunger? eat popcorn! - and after it was successful for him, he founded an advertising company for subliminal messages in films."
"Sounds scary. How come he hasn't taken over the world yet?"
I smiled. "It's probably because the whole business was completely fabricated. No one has been able to repeat their experiment. Ten years after the experiment Vicari himself admitted that he falsified the results, and today there are those who believe that he never conducted the experiment."
"What a maniac. There must have been several PhD students who tried to do similar experiments, and didn't understand why it didn't work for them."
"Yes, of course there were. Poor people. But let's get back to the original topic. Since Vicari there have been many other scientists who have tried to do similar experiments with subliminal messages. In retrospect, subliminal messages probably do work at a basic level, but there are a lot of limitations. You can't put more than a word or two, for example, or the viewer's brain just isn't big enough to process the whole sentence. And in the experiment published two weeks ago, they managed to show another factor that limits the subliminal messages, but can also help us understand how to use them in a really effective way."
The soft music in the background changed at that moment, and Elvis Presley wondered aloud if we were alone tonight. At this point the burgers arrived at the table. Three hundred and thirty grams of fine ground beef, peppered and salted according to the best tradition, with dark roasting stripes with a charred smell that stimulates the senses. Elvis' deep voice blended well with the culinary feast on the table, and my salivary glands began to work overtime. Still, I held back. If you eat, you don't talk.
"A researcher from the Netherlands - one Martin Veltkamp - was able to show that the subliminal messages only work for the people who want and need them to work. He projected seventy-six students a subliminal message telling them to 'drink!', or a meaningless subliminal message, as a critique. The students who came to the experiment in advance when they were thirsty were also the ones who were most influenced by the subliminal instruction they received."
A. pondered for a moment, his eyes drifting involuntarily towards the juicy hamburger on his plate. "So basically you're saying that subliminal messages only work if they match what I need. If I'm hungry, then I won't obey a subconscious message telling me to stop eating.”
"exactly. But there are exceptions to this rule. If the subliminal message matches what you associate as good, then it can still affect you. If you believe that dieting is good for you, then the subtext might help you stop eating, even if you're hungry.”
"So that means in the end, it all comes down to what I believe." He bit into the hamburger bun eagerly. "It doesn't sound so terrible. Basically, subliminal messages can't convince me of anything I don't already believe."
"Well, not exactly," I said, "in fact, in recent years an experiment was conducted in Israel that showed that it is possible to influence people's political choice through subliminal messages."
A choked, and almost choked on the meat. "you are joking!"
"not really no. And you didn't even need such a complex message for that. Ran Hassin, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, conducted an experiment in 2006 in which he projected to over two hundred participants a repeated subliminal message, which contained only one image - the Israeli flag. The result was amazing: those with extreme views among the participants, the extreme right and the extreme left, all moderated, and almost reached an overlap in their political opinion. This moderation continued even until the elections that year, and it turned out that even in the ballot their choice was influenced by the message they received, and they voted for the parties that lean more towards the center. And all, without them knowing that they were influenced at all."
"Well, it's already really scary. So it is possible to influence our opinion without us knowing it. Literally a conspiracy theory.” He took another bite of the hamburger without realizing it.
"I wouldn't exaggerate," I tried to tell him, but found my mouth full of juicy beef. I swallowed quickly and continued to speak, “I wouldn't exaggerate. These things are monitored, and today you have hackers analyzing every advertisement and every broadcast, frame by frame. If one of the parties in Israel used a broadcast with such messages, someone would surely have noticed."
"Okay, you're probably right. But what about other places besides election broadcasters? What about music, for example? Maybe it is possible to put messages there that we won't pay attention to, but will change our behavior? How could anyone even recognize it?”
"I'm not sure it's possible. They already did an experiment that showed that tapes to improve memory and self-confidence, the kind you listen to while sleeping with headphones, don't really work. But maybe even there they haven't found the right formula yet. who knows? It could be that there really is a restaurant whose music encourages people to eat. But that sounds absurd to me."
"Totally absurd," my friend agreed with me. He wiped the meat juice from the plate with the rest of the bun, and chewed and wondered aloud. "What a good Cinta Bar restaurant, huh?"
The waitress, quiet as a bat, cleared the plates and placed a saucer with damp cloths on the table. Elvis cleared the stage for Billy Joel, who played a soft love song in our ears. I sighed to myself with the satisfaction that only comes from a full stomach, and only in Cinta Bar, for some reason.
"the best there is."
Sources:
Subliminal exposure to national flags affects political thought and behavior. Hassin, Gross et al.
On the emergence of deprivation-reducing behaviors: Subliminal priming of behavior representations turns deprivation into motivation. Veltkamp, Custers et al.
26 תגובות
A sub-threshold message in a photo
See article http://www.articles.co.il/article/48572
Ami:
Your analysis makes a lot of sense to me.
Although I think that the fact of direct penetration into the subconscious is a decisive factor and almost every time we see the flag we see it in a certain context that allows us to neutralize the effect of the exposure, but I have little doubt that the mechanism you describe plays an important part in the phenomenon.
To Michael R.
Following your comment (I was not offended... 🙂 ) I did search, found and read the original article by Ran Hasin.
It can be found at the following link (there is no reference in Roy's article):
http://www.pnas.org/lookup/doi/10.1073/pnas.0704679104
I have to point out that the reading, and the thought of its consequences was scary and gave me a real stomach ache (literally).
In my comment above, I doubted the results of the study for a simple reason - I did not understand how exposure to a symbol that we are exposed to from all sides anyway could have an effect. What is the difference between unconscious exposure of 16ms (as in the study) and unconscious exposure across a passing bus? And if we are exposed to the flag hundreds of times (including unconsciously) a day, how can one more exposure change patterns so dramatically?
Well - I want to offer an answer to the question:
It is possible that the difference lies in the proximity of the questionnaire and the exposure. The idea is that the exposure to the flag causes only an immediate and short-term change in opinions (and in the example of the article - on voting intentions). In the day-to-day context, many such exposures happen, but as mentioned, their effect is extremely short-term (perhaps a few minutes).
In the experiment reviewed in the article - immediately after the exposure, the examinees are asked about their voting intentions. When they choose the answer, they are unconsciously influenced by the exposure of the flag and as soon as they answer the question - they actually establish the subconscious influence on their conscious decisions (and probably also convince themselves that they chose a rational choice...). From the moment the choice was said / written - the subject remembers it and is aware of it and therefore will not rush to change it and thus it becomes a long-term influence.
What do you say about the theory?
What if Ran Hasin? Maybe he reads the comments - I'd love to hear his opinion.
Smart at night = brainiac (Brainiac) from the BBC?
I just wanted to add,
In the program "Chemek Bili" on the Discovery channel, they conducted these experiments on people from the street, who were invited to see an episode of the series in the cinema.
The messages were: - "call your mother", - "drink" and "pick your nose" (as we know, Wise at Night is a humorous program).
The people were photographed by a hidden camera, and the results proved that if what you are told makes sense, then it will be done.
I just wanted to contradict the sentence that said he did not do another such experiment that was successful.
Ami:
It's a shame that you respond to the article when you say you haven't read it.
Your question does not refer to what was said in the article - that is - in the article it was not claimed that a sub-threshold message (this is the accepted term) has more effect than an overt message.
However, there really is a reason why this type of message will have more impact in situations where it is actually received (and the article explains that this does not always happen). The reason lies in the fact that the message comes to us subconsciously and therefore we do not criticize it. We do not compare it with our opinions in general and make a conscious choice of the conclusion and it is assimilated into our subconscious emotionally.
I, for example, in principle, consciously try to avoid exposure to advertisements.
That's why visible advertisements are usually censored by me without me paying attention to them.
Rather a direct insertion of them into my subconscious might work.
In America there was a story against "Iron Chef", a cooking show that inserted a red frame with a yellow M... a McDonald's logo in the middle of the show without connection to anything.
Why is a subconscious message more influential than an overt message?
I would love to receive an answer (at least theoretically) how it is possible for a hidden message such as Ran Hasin's flag to have such a significant effect over time. After all, we are exposed to images of flags in every direction and corner and on every screen. What makes the difference in the hidden flag? Why is his influence so decisive and "scorched"?
Is it the fact that he "catches us off guard", when rational defenses are neutralized?
Sounds very strange to me and goes against all (my) intuitions. Without reading the article - I personally treat these data with skepticism.
The meat conveys a subconscious message: I am delicious, and then the person feels that it is delicious
lion:
This story of hers where she wraps up her words now with something she once wrote in the margins of some book reminds me of the story about someone 18 years old who is said to be a child prodigy because when he was born he knew everything he knows today.
Hugin Rorschach is not relevant to the imagination of the scientists or examiners. It is based on the imagination of the subjects. Rorschach's life was not removed because of problems of imagination, but because of problems of validity. We will simply discover that Rorschach does not test what he claimed to test. If you've ever seen Rorschach spots, you'd probably know what I saw in them. Hint - I saw the same thing, almost in all of them.
The subject matter is interesting, but I'm sorry to report that the narrative style only makes it difficult to read.
straw man -
From your mouth to the sky.
Fagin -
I thought about becoming a writer, until I realized how much they earn. So today is from the side.
Do the subliminal messages only work on people without character / weak? I'm not sure at all. In psychology, you can come across strange phenomena - for example, scary advertisements (a quiet day, the birds are chirping, suddenly grandma crosses the road. It can happen to you too!) actually work better on people with more self-confidence. The psychologists' explanation is that these people are even willing to open themselves to the thought of the possible accident, and what they can do to prevent it. So if this is how it works in ads, it is very difficult to determine what happens in non-ads. Interesting question.
Roy.
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my new blog - Another science
Great article! Have you ever thought of becoming a writer? You definitely have what it takes..
P.S. The subliminal messages would (maybe) work.. but I'm telling you right now that it will only work on characterless/weak people who want to be led.. not like that?
If after this article you don't get percentages at Cinta Bar, I recommend you move to another buffet 🙂 where you will be more appreciated. Both nibbles of science and harnessing them for marketing.
There is no doubt that this time the article is full of food descriptions that would not have embarrassed Yaron London in his merry days.
Mmm… hamburger
I didn't understand what the subliminal message was in the article. :) But about an hour ago, before I even opened the laptop for the day, I became aware of a declarative statement with full awareness of what I said to myself, that I had recently become a "fanatic Zionist"! Especially after I exposed it to the Hidan website last year..is it under the influence of the Israeli flag that was the 'hidden', which was revealed in this article?
Or are the messages in general just arousing things that are already present in the affected from the beginning and are just quietly waiting for the trigger to trigger them.
and response to response,
I wonder what Arya saw in Rorschach? :) Because this morning I pulled out and opened a book about the Sphinx cipher and in the margin I saw that I had previously written a small sentence: "A scientist without imagination is like a bored, clipped-winged taxman". The bored testers?
Michael is right, I was confused between relating and believing
Say, what about all the usual advertisements that we are fully aware of....
I threw away TV, radio and newspapers 4 years ago from my life to avoid commercials,
There are advertising psychologies that influence you in all kinds of ways so that you buy certain products
Like the parable of one company that advertises the same product under several witty names and under the names of subsidiaries... the main thing is to create a false impression of a high demand for the product (since it has many manufacturers) and there are many more examples
Nir,
This is a really interesting question. I will be very amused if it turns out that I did influence the volume of sales and visits to the restaurant. Although they really don't need me for that - the place is usually full every evening.
Igal,
Thanks. It's always nice to experiment with different styles, although I admit I wasn't sure if it was the right style for popular science articles. But don't argue with what works...
And Michael, thanks for the recommendation!
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my new blog - Another science
Michael, this is just a joke, and yes, I have already visited there.
Idan:
There is a difference between "regarding" and "believing".
It is very important to refer to new studies. If no one addresses them, there will also be no one to check and try to confirm or refute the findings.
Yigal:
The advertisement for Roy's blog is not a problem but a service to the public.
In all seriousness! Highly recommended to visit there!
Roy, as usual, a fun article to read and learn from, thanks for the change in style!
Nir, the problem is not with the "hidden" advertisement for the Cinta Bar restaurant, but the advertisement for Roy's blog...
And the obvious question - how did the last two columns affect the volume of sales of the neighborhood Sinta Bar restaurant.
This reminds us that we should not consider any "research" or scientific experiment until there are several others that come to the same conclusion.
I still remember that in the school where I studied, I read in one of the textbooks about Vicari's experiment, but without any mention of the problems that were discovered in it.
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my new blog - Another science
I can testify that forty years ago in university psychology studies, Vicari's findings regarding the effect of subliminal stimuli on behavior were treated as true. At that time it was also thought that the Rorschach test (a projective personality test, in which the subject is asked to say what he sees in a symmetrical ink blot) was valid (today it is known that it is not). And I don't want to tell you what I saw in every Rorschach picture...