Subliminal Messages Might Actually Work 172
GrumpySimon writes "New research indicates that subliminal messages may actually work. In a paper titled Attentional Load Modulates Responses of Human Primary Visual Cortex to Invisible Stimuli, Bahrani et al. demonstrate that even though stimuli may not be available to consciousness, they are processed by the visual cortex. While I'm sure that marketing agencies all over the world are rubbing their hands in glee at this news, the authors report that there's no evidence that this can make people buy things against their will. So with any luck the use of subliminal messages in advertising will remain an urban legend."
Television (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope, stick with good old quality writing and you'll get my interest. Then I'll at least look into your product and consider buying it. Otherwise, good luck.
TLF
"Buy things against their will" (Score:5, Insightful)
Just plain old advertising could be said to make people "buy things against their will", if it tips the balance from "slightly inclined to not purchase" to "slightly inclined to purchase".
Speaking in such black and white terms is misleading.
Re:Television (Score:2, Insightful)
hypothesis (Score:2, Insightful)
Just how plausible is this hypothesis?
The other hypothesis is that the technique is known to work!
Re:Purpose, Method, Consequences of Subliminal Ads (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Television (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a kind of fiction which is very central to our notions of freedom and rationality: that there is a world of deliberative thoughts and ideas, where we rationally evaluate things and discuss them, where ideas are free, and there's the world of bodies and emotions and material stuff, where I don't have the right to hit you or take your stuff or threaten you. Subliminal marketing blurs this distinction by working at the intersection of the two.