Abstract
Research by marketing/advertising scholars has yielded anything but definitive results when testing whether subliminal advertising is capable of persuading consumers. Recent research in social cognition has provided impressive evidence that subliminally priming brand names affects individuals’ attitudes, choices, and behaviors. In the spirit of replication and boundary-condition testing, we conducted three studies to examine whether subliminally priming brand names remains successful under more realistic marketplace conditions. Study 1 pits an underdog brand against a market share leader and demonstrates that subliminal priming significantly influences purchase intentions when consumers are in an active thirst state. Study 2 examines the boundary conditions of this effect on brand choice in a simulated store environment and also obtains a significant priming effect when consumers are in an active thirst state. However, this effect is nullified in study 3 that is structurally parallel to study 2 but which adds a 15-min time delay between the prime and the choice task. The resultant null effect questions the ability of subliminal priming to persuade consumers under more realistic marketplace conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bargh, J. A. (2002). Losing consciousness: automatic influences on consumer judgment, behavior, and motivation. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(2), 280–285.
Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. A. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54(7), 462–479.
Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (2000). The mind in the middle: a practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 253–285). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Beatty, S. E., & Hawkins, D. I. (1989). Subliminal stimulation: some new data and interpretation. Journal of Advertising, 18(3), 4–8.
Bermeitinger, C., Ruben, G., Nadine, J., Manfred, N., Ecker, U. K. H., & Doerr, R. (2009). The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(2), 320–326.
Block, M., & Vanden Bergh, B. G. (1985). Can you sell subliminal messages to consumers? Journal of Advertising, 14(3), 59–62.
Chartrand, T. L., Huber, J., Shiv, B., & Tanner, R. J. (2008). Nonconscious goals and consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2), 189–201.
Cuperfain, R., & Clarke, T. K. (1985). A new perspective of subliminal perception. Journal of Advertising, 14(1), 36–41.
Epley, N. K., Savitsky, K., & Kachelski, R. A. (1999). What every skeptic should know about subliminal persuasion. Skeptical Inquirer, 23(5), 40–45.
Fanelli, D. (2012). Negative results are disappearing from most disciplines and countries. Scientometrics, 90(3), 891–904.
Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2004). Liking is for doing: the effect of goal pursuit on automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(5), 557–572.
Francis, G. (2012). Too good to be true: publication bias in two prominent studies from experimental psychology. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(2), 151–156.
Gibson, B., & Zielaskowski, K. (2013). Subliminal priming of winning images prompts increased betting in slot machine play. Journal of Applied Psychology, 43(1), 106–115.
Goukens, C., Dewitte, S., Pandelaere, M., & Warlop, L. (2007). Wanting a bit(e) of everything: extending the valuation effect to variety seeking. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(3), 386–394.
Hawkins, D. (1970). The effects of subliminal stimulation on drive level and brand preference. Journal of Marketing Research, 7(3), 322–326.
Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., & Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: the impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(6), 792–798.
Schooler, J. (2011). Unpublished results hide the decline effect. Nature, 470(7335), 437.
Shimp, T. A., Stuart, E. W., & Engle, R. W. (1991). A program of classical conditioning experiments testing variations in the conditioned stimulus and context. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(1), 1–12.
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohm, U. (2011). False positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 20(10), 1–8.
Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Subliminal priming and persuasion: striking while the iron is hot. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(6), 556–568.
Verwijmeren, T., Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2011). The workings and limits of subliminal advertising: the role of habits. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 21(2), 206–213.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smarandescu, L., Shimp, T.A. Drink coca-cola, eat popcorn, and choose powerade: testing the limits of subliminal persuasion. Mark Lett 26, 715–726 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9294-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9294-1