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Subliminal messaging
When I was a small child, I thought the idea of subliminal messaging was way cool. Learn languages in your sleep! Control people's minds by inserting inaudible dialogue into the background! Wicked!
To the best of my knowledge, that type of subliminal messaging -- a hidden, language-based message -- doesn't exist (but if you have evidence of one, please comment!). Influencing another's actions turns out to be pretty easy. There are many well-documented ways to manipulate others. I will focus here on getting the answers you want. Basically, response management comes down to how you phrase the question.
In a classic study by Tversky and Kahneman, participants were given two options for combating a plague that was projected to kill 600 people. Plan A was sure to save 200 people. Plan B had a 1/3 probability of saving 600 and a 2/3 probability of saving nobody. 78% of participants took the safe option: A. Rephrasing the question in terms of deaths (400 guaranteed under Plan A; 1/3 probably of 0 and 2/3 probability of 600 under Plan B) reversed the result: 78% of participants chose plan B. This is because humans are risk-prone when dealing with losses ("let's hope for the best") but risk-averse when dealing with gains ("let's keep what we have").
In another study by Tversky and colleagues, they found that if you offer a shopper a "one time only" sale on a piece of merchandice (e.g., a Sony CD player), most (66%) will buy it, happy to avoid further shopping. If you offer them two different products (one by Sony, one by Aiwa), both on sale, nearly half (46%) will continue shopping rather than buy either. The addition of choices makes people less likely to choose.
In a different study (Strack & Mussweiler; pdf) asked one set of participants "Did Gandhi live to the age of 140?" The participants presumably all responded, "No." The second question was to estimate how long Gandhi lived. The average estimate was 67. The second group of participants was first asked "Did Gandhi live past the age of 9." Again, presumably everybody replied correctly. On the second question, they estimated on average that Gandhi lived to 50.
There are many other examples. This is why experts will tell you that polls are next to meaningless unless you know the exact wording of the question. It's not subliminal mind control like in the movies, but manipulating people's decisions (or, at least their answers to surveys) is fairly easy.
Submitted by coglanglab on Sun, 2007-09-02 08:27.
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K-Mart and subliminal messaging.
Actually while I can't find the exact citation(probably because I'm not bothering to look it up), when I was in training by Dodge, they admitting use of subliminal advertising, altough it was rather blatant. Anyway during this training was something K-Mart used. After certain studies they decided to start playing certain music over the intercom to reduce shoplifting. Within 6 months there was a huge decrease in theft. In some stores they went back to standard pop culture and the shoplifting went back up. With more studies they tried other musics and found they increased shoplifting above normal amounts. Something to look into.
Advertising and music
Sometimes, just having gone past advertising on the wall, I find myself singing the song that I had heard before, from the commercial of the same product on tv. Is that due to a subliminal message?
Advertising and subliminals
If advertising didn't work, don't you think those companies who spend $2 million a minute for superbowl commercials would have noticed "No Increase" in sales by now?
The businessman who doesn't believe in advertising uses advertised products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He drives an advertised car to work and back, wears advertised clothes, talks on an advertised cell-phone on an advertised network, buys advertised products for his home and business and when he's about to go under, advertises his business for sale.
Go figure.
As far as subliminals go, remember the book about subliminal advertising back about the 1970's? Take that method and go look at the great masters in museums to find hidden messages in them. They're there.
Then again, those guys didn't even speak english!
Response management: A Jesuit and a Franciscan
A Jesuit and a Franciscan sit in the train, both praying the breviary. Suddenly the
Jesuit pulls out a silver cigarette box, and starts smoking. Asks the Franciscan
indignantly: "How dare you smoke while praying?" The Jesuit responds:
"Oh, I have asked Rome and got permission". The Franciscan is interested and
also writes to the Holy See.
Two weeks later the two priests meet again and the Franciscan complains:
"You finely made a fool out of me, of course Rome denied to give permission".
Asks the Jesuit: "And how did you actually word your question?"
The Franciscan: "I asked whether it is allowed to smoke while praying..."
"Wrong from the start", interrupts the Jesuit, "you should have asked if it is allowed to pray while smoking..."
There is also implicit learning
There is also implicit learning. While not normally language-based it is a way to teach things to people without their knowledge--which is kind of neat.
subliminal messaging -- Derren Brown ?
The previous commenter made me think of some of the
videos of mentalist Derren Brown where he presumably uses
"subliminal" messaging.
Indeed, the annals of mentalism suggest that "forces" are done
using a form of subliminal messaging.
why do people advertise?
Myrah:
There is an old line about advertising that goes like this: "We know half the money spent on advertising is wasted; we just don't know which half." (cf http://www.slate.com/id/2149594/)
One thing that definitely works in terms of advertising is building name recognition. I don't have any studies to cite, but I think you'll believe that people are (1) more willing to trust a brand they've heard of, and (2) more likely to start with a brand they heard of when shopping ("I need a lawyer. Here's a list of lawyers. Bartlett & Hart...that name sounds familiar...")
So does plastering your brand name everywhere count as "subliminal messaging"? I don't think it does in the classic sense. But it is definitely and example of how you can influence somebody's behavior in an indirect manner.
Please try my web-based experiments at http://coglanglab.org
Subsubliminalism
Subliminal messaging may not exist, then why are so many companies advertising, and we don't acknowledge much of it in a direct way. Think of the Tony Hawk video games (I can only vouch for the older ones). They have product billboards during the gameplay (You can see activision and other companies involved but only if you are not paying attention to your character's moves and the ramps). Of course the sales didn't smack the roof because of that game, but you gotta wonder why advertisements are so prevalent when we live in an anti-popup type of culture. It must be having some effect...
Or I'm totally wrong! Anyway, I enjoyed the read and a clear example of prospect theory.
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