Subliminal Consciousness

-1957-

Significant increases in soft drink and popcorn sales are noted after directives to "Drink Coke" and "Eat Popcorn" were subliminally projected onto a movie screen over a six week period. The duration of the messages were so short that they were never consciously perceived. Despite admission of a hoax, the sales of popcorn rose 57.7% and the sales of Coca-Cola reportedly rose 18.1%. (Williamson, 1984)

-1985-

The families of two boys who committed suicide sued musicians Judas Priest, for allegedly placing in a song a subliminal message – “Do it” - that the plaintiffs believed pushed their sons into suicide (Williamson, 1984).

The Orwellian concept that our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours are capable of control through various mediums gained plausibility in 1957, and created a frenzy of consumer concern after subliminal messages stealthily urged them to purchase. With early researchers understanding that mental structures underlying our actions were not always in the sphere of the conscious, two distinct theories sought to find reason behind these actions. Amidst concerned parents citing subliminal messages as a factor in their youths suicides many theorists have shifted away from Freuds’ dynamic unconscious to an information processing model; a shift in reasoning nonetheless comparable with the psychoanalytic paradigm.

According to cognitive psychologists, the unconscious mind does not appear to have any hidden agenda, drive, or any pre-existing intelligence or motivation, unlike the psychoanalytic model. Freuds’ psychoanalytic theory, is described as motivationally hot and passionate, both complex and dynamic; an unconscious mind as a primary process that uses sophisticated defences, capable of handling complex bodies of knowledge, serving to best protect the secondary conscious mind (Klinger, 1992). This theory is commonly critiqued for assuming the unconsciousness as a fundamental concept “whilst not having addressed the nature of the assumption itself” (Shevrin, 1980, p314)

Rather than the primitive and irrational psychoanalysis (Kihlstrom, Barnhardt & Tataryn, 1992), cognitive theorists interpret the nonconscious mind as analogous to a motiveless multi-tasking computer performing logical and intelligent processes (Eagle, 1987). In the cognitive unconscious, there is great rationality in the ubiquitous computational a...

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Eagle, M.N. (1987). The psychoanalytic and the cognitive unconscious. In R. Stern (Ed.). Theories of the unconscious and theories of the self (pp.159-189). Hillside, N.J.: Analytic Press Inc.

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Kihlstrom, J.F. (1990). The psychological unconscious. In L.A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 445-464). New York: Guilford Press.

Kihlstrom, J.F. (1987). Cognitive Unconscious. Science, 237, 1445-1452.

Kihlstrom, J.F., Barnhardt, T.M. & Tataryn, D.J. (1992). The psychological unconscious: Found, lost, and regained. American Psychologist, 47(6), 788-791.

Loftus, E.F. & Klinger, M.R. (1992). Is the unconscious smart or dumb? American Psychologist, 1992, 47(6), 761-765.

Shevrin, H. The Freudian unconscious and the cognitive unconscious: Identical or fraternal twins? In J.W. Barron, M.N. Eagle, D.L. Woliztky (Eds.). Interface of psychoanalysis and psychology (pp. 313-326). Washington: American Psychological Association.

Williamson, J. (1984). Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in advertising. Marion Boyers Publishing (5th Ed.)