EXERCISE 46: THE ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD LEVEL
AND SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES
Objectives
<<NL>>
Background
Overview of
Perceptual Principles Covered in and Organization of the Remaining Chapter 13
Exercises
Recall
the consumer information-processing model outlined in Figure 1 for this chapter
with its stages of exposure, attention, comprehension, and retention.
This and the following three exercises will investigate more closely several
phenomena related to the attention
and comprehension phases of the
process shown in Figure 46.1.
<<Figure 46.1
about here>>
Exposure
Exposure occurs when a consumer confronts
(or is confronted by) a stimulus so that one or more sensory organs are
activated and information processing can begin. Exposure can be either random or involuntary, such as with broadcast commercials and outdoor
billboards, or deliberate and voluntary, as with online searches and
print media.
The
key consideration for the advertiser is matching characteristics of the target market with those of a medium’s target audience so that the
right consumers are potentially exposed to marketing communications.
Advertisements are then placed within media vehicles where they are most likely
to be encountered, such as next to interesting editorial matter in a magazine or
in a relevant section of the newspaper, as with sporting goods ads positioned
in the sports pages.
Attention
Next
occurs attention—the degree to which
the consumer focuses on the incoming stimulus, thereby allocating information
processing capacity to it so that the sensations enter his brain for
processing. Job one for any promotional effort is to grab the prospect’s
attention!
This
and the following exercise will focus on two aspects of the attention phase. First is the absolute threshold level—the minimum
level of stimulus intensity that is noticeable. This exercise concerns this
absolute threshold level as well as subliminal
advertising—advertising elements that are supposedly snuck in below the
consumer’s absolute threshold level in an effort to covertly influence CB.
A
second phenomenon of interest to marketers during the attention phase, covered in Exercise
47, is the just noticeable difference
(differential threshold)—the level of stimulus intensity change that can
just barely be detected by a consumer, such as a slight price hike or miniscule
cut in product quality.
Comprehension
(Interpretation)
Exercises
48 and 49 will concern the stage of comprehension—the
consumer’s level of understanding and interpretation of the stimulus. Exercise 48 will investigate consumers’
use of surrogate indicators—shorthand
signals of product quality or performance, such as price and brand name, which
might or might not be valid indicators of the product’s nature. Gestalt principles of perceptual
organization—how the arrangement of the components of a stimulus object
affects the way it is interpreted by the consumer—will be covered in Exercise 49.
The
final hurdle in consumer information processing is retention—the entry if information into long-term memory so that it
can be recalled, the subject of Chapter
14 on learning.
Psychophysics
and the Absolute Threshold Level
Whether
or not a consumer actively pays attention
to a stimulus to which s/he is exposed is determined in large part by the level
of intensity of the stimulus. Psychophysics
is the study of the how the physical environment is related to people’s
subjective (psychological) experience, i.e., the relationship between the
nature and amount of a stimulus and the sensation that it produces. This discipline
investigates the absolute threshold level
and the differential threshold.
The
lowest level at which a person just barely detects a stimulus is known as that
cue’s absolute (lower, detection) threshold
level (ATL). The ATL is the minimal level of stimulus intensity that the
individual can perceive, i.e., the point at which a person can just barely
notice that “something” is there. The tone you could just barely hear in those
hearing tests you took back in grade school was your ATL for hearing.
For
example, a typical person can see a candle flame at 30 miles on a dark clear
night and can also taste one teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water and
smell one drop of perfume diffused throughout a three-bedroom apartment
(therefore, you need not dowse yourself with cologne for people to notice!).
Of
course, there are individual differences in such ATLs, so these are only
averages. Furthermore, one person might vary somewhat in sensitivity to stimuli
from day to day or from one situation to another.
Generally,
our senses can only perceive a rather narrow range of stimulus intensity. For
instance, we are unable to see ultraviolet rays, although bees can. Bats and
porpoises can hear sounds two octaves beyond our range. You cannot notice radar,
but a radar detector can.
Firms
sometimes hire professionals with relatively low ATLs as taste testers or to
determine the efficacy of personal care products such as deodorants (testers actually
smell peoples’ armpits to detect if deodorant eliminates odor) and mints (they
smell people’s breath).
The Adaptation Level: A Changing Absolute Threshold Level
Sometimes
people’s ATLs change over time. Adaptation
(sensory adaptation, habituation) is the process of adjusting to or growing
accustomed to a frequently occurring stimulus so that it is no longer noticed. Recall
how the first chilly day of winter that comes along feels quite cold, but after
several days of cold you “get used to” the chill so that it is no longer so
uncomfortable.
Likewise,
stepping into an air conditioned store on a very hot day feels great at first.
But after several minutes, you adapt to the cooler level of sensation and no
longer notice it. When you enter a locker room, at first you choke on the odor
of “eau de locker room,” but after awhile it no longer bothers you. Although
when you first ride in a car, you hear the “ding, ding, ding” of the car safety
belt reminder to buckle up, after awhile you ignore it.
The
adaptation level, then, is that
amount of stimulus intensity to which a person becomes accustomed. It serves as
a reference point or standard of comparison for changes in the level of the
stimulus. Consequently, at a noisy party someone coughing would not be heard,
but in a quiet room where students are taking a test this same sound would be
startling.
For
marketers, the implication is to make sure consumers do not become adapted to their
marketing stimuli, such as advertising or packaging, so that they tune them
out. This is accomplished by offering change or variety in marketing cues.
Consequently, most advertising campaigns, while featuring similar messages and
creative executions of that message, present variations in individual ads so
that consumers do not grow bored. Although Wheaties remains the “Breakfast of
Champions,” the individual sports stars features in the ads and on the package
continually evolve. In the area of product development, new and improved versions as well as line extensions (new flavors, scents, styles, etc.) keep a product
fresh and interesting for consumers as well as provide variety. In short,
consumers should “expect the unexpected.”
However,
marketers must be cautious in making radical changes, such as altering
ingredients in food or drink items or rapidly raising prices. Often the
adaptation level is preferred, and so customers might better receive
evolutionary change than revolutionary change. For instance, with rapidly
rising gasoline prices in the mid-2000s, at first consumes experienced sticker
shock. However, the shock did not last forever, and people got used to paying
$3 a gallon, and even later $4 per gallon rather than $2.
Following
its merger with Cingular Wireless, ATT&T Wireless decided to phase out the
Cingular name. However, they did so gradually over several months, beginning
with the tagline in commercials “Cingular is now part of AT&T,” followed
shortly thereafter by making the AT&T name more prominent, and eventually
dropping the Cingular moniker.
Marketing Stimuli and the Absolute
Threshold Level
Some Stimuli Should Be Above the ATL
Of
course, marketers need to make sure that their important stimuli (advertising
elements, reduced prices on packages, etc.) are above the consumer’s ATL, which
is a big challenge in cluttered commercial environments. Marketers must resort
to tactics to get consumer attention,
as discussed in the last exercise.
Other Stimuli Should Be Below the ATL
There
are also instances in which marketers do not wish for consumers to detect
certain stimuli; they prefer to remain below the consumer’s ATL radar. You have
heard of the “fine print” in advertising disclosures, packages, and other
written materials. This is so tiny sometimes to unethically avoid catching the
consumer’s attention. Similarly, the audio disclosures in radio commercials
that are legally required (“Offer void where prohibited”) usually run at warp
speed and at low volume so that consumers cannot really understand them.
Subliminal
Advertising
Overview of Subliminal Influences
A
much-discussed tactic whereby marketers allegedly lurk below the ATL is the
case of subliminal advertising. The
word subliminal comes from combining
two Latin words: the prefix sub
(meaning “below”) with limen (“threshold”
or “limit”).
Subliminal, then, literally means “below
the threshold of conscious perception (absolute
threshold level),” i.e., people cannot perceive a stimulus object at all.
Consequently, subliminal stimuli (subliminal messages) are cues that
activate one or more sensory receptors but are below the threshold of
perception (ATL).
A
person’s subconscious perception of subliminal cues is called subliminal perception. The belief is
that one can influence consumer behavior (CB) by secretly appealing to the
subconscious mind with words, images, or sounds. Critics claim that advertising
agencies use these subliminal stimuli in via subliminal advertising (subliminal seduction)—trying to manipulate
consumers by placing hidden images, words, or sounds in print, audio, or video
advertising media. The theory is that, although the stimulus is below the
consumer’s level of conscious awareness, the subconscious nonetheless processes
the stimulus, leading to (1) attitude change
(e.g., brand preference), followed by (2) behavioral
change (e.g., a product purchase or a store visit).
Types
of Subliminal Messages
During
the 1950s, the U.S. experienced the “red scare”—fear about the rise of
communism and its “mind control.” In this environment of alarm, stories began
circulating that advertising agencies were doing motivation research, some of whose findings were being used to seduce
customers with subliminal messaging to get them to buy unwanted merchandise.
We
now investigate five different types of subliminal stimuli: subvisual messages, embeds, incongruities and
suggestiveness, subaudible messages,
and backward masking. You shall learn
that, while subliminal stimuli perhaps occasionally exist, subliminals cannot be effectively used to persuade or alter CB.
Years of research have shown very limited emotional effects of subliminal
stimulation, and there has been no support for its effectiveness in behavior
modification. Nonetheless, at least three-fourths of the general adult American
population believes that subliminal advertising is purposely created and used
to sell products.
Bottom
line: If some marketers do use subliminal stimuli, they are wasting their
efforts and being unethically sneaky in the process.
Subvisual Messages. The brouhaha over subliminal
advertising began in 1957 when a movie theatre hired Subliminal Projection
Company, run by the originator of the term subliminal
advertising, James Vicary. He used subvisual
messages—single-frame visual images or words, of milliseconds in duration,
implanted into a film (and now also other electronic motion media). These messages
are repeatedly flashed every few seconds, notably in motion pictures,
television shows, videotapes, DVDs, video games, and on computer screens.
Vicary’s
firm designed a subliminal projection machine that was capable of flashing such
messages within big-screen movies extremely briefly (for 3/1000 of a second,
every five seconds). For a six-week test run in the movie theatre, Vicary
alternated the subliminal messages, “Hungry? Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke,”
exposing 45,699 patrons.
Vicary
held press conferences claiming that the subliminals increased sales of Coke by
18% and of popcorn by 58%. However, he never released a detailed description of
his study. Nor has there ever been any independent evidence to support his
claims—all attempts at replication failed. Moreover, in an interview with Advertising Age in 1962, Vicary admitted
that the original study was a fabrication designed to help his struggling
business. And, despite the notoriety, no regulation or legislation has ever
been enacted against subvisual communication.
Nonetheless,
periodically there are reports of efforts to use subliminal messages in TV
commercials. Movies have also been accused of planting subvisuals, such as a death
mask flashed on screen to give audiences an extra scare in “The Exorcist”’, a suspect
bulge on a character that appeared to be an erection in “The Little Mermaid,”
and a wispy S-E-X spelled out in the clouds in a scene from “The Lion King.”.
Subvisual messages have also been used by self-improvement software such as
InnerTalk, with managers programming computers to flash messages such as “work
faster.”
Subliminal Print Ads: Embeds. During the 1970s and ‘80s, Dr.
Bryan Wilson Key published a series of books discussing print media embeds—hidden words and images, most of
which appeal to subconscious drives such as sex and the Freudian death wish (Thanatos). Key alleged that these faint
visuals were being placed in magazine ads via techniques like high-speed
photography and airbrushing. Today, digital manipulation is supposedly used as
well. Allegedly, viewers subconsciously perceived the embeds, which could
elicit drives such as sexual arousal. This, in turn, supposedly made the
products more attractive to consumers, thereby positively influencing their
attitudes and provoking sales.
Key
found embeds including women’s breasts, male and female genitalia, and death
masks in the ice cubes of liquor ads. He famously found the word “sex” as well
as many unprintable four-letter words emblazoned on people’s hair and beards,
plus couples in compromising positions in floral designs. He even claimed that the
word “sex” was formed by the holes in Ritz crackers, making this delicacy taste
even better!
However,
conceptually, Key offered no explanation for exactly how subliminal advertising
works. Key backed up his case with a hodgepodge of theories from the fields of
communication studies, media criticism, and Freudian psychology, most of which
is dismissed by the modern scientific community. For instance, drawing on
Freudian thinking, he claimed that when we perceive these images subliminally
but repress them, we are irrationally attracted to the ad.
Empirically,
there is virtually no experimental support for the efficacy of subliminal
embeds. Key’s own “research” with his students lacked proper scientific
controls. He simply asked how many of his students saw particular alleged embeds
in ads, considering their acquiescence as evidence.
Some
psychology experiments have shown that subliminal stimuli can influence
high-level cognitive and affective processes (e.g., recognition of and preferences
for geometric shapes), although these are fleeting in nature. Some studies
suggest that human sensory organs pick up stimuli presented below the threshold
of consciousness and that people can process information without being aware of
it. More recent research also suggests that subliminally presented stimuli can
influence behavior.
However,
these studies were conducted in artificial laboratory situations. And, the
effects are generally so small and fleeting as to be useless in altering CB.
Investigations have failed to show conclusive results in an advertising
context.
The
key (pun purely coincidental) issue is whether subliminal stimuli provide
advertisers with a tool to bypass buyers’ defenses without their awareness, so
that consumer exposure to subliminals results in effective persuasion and
manipulation of the consumers’ behavior. The nearly universal consensus is that
this is not possible.
Other
questions remain unanswered by Key.
<<BL>>
• Where is his documentation for the
cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of subliminal advertising? All he
offered was anecdotal evidence based on what he and his students “discovered”
in print ads. As the ad industry has pointed out, such “findings” seem to be
the product of hyperactive imaginations. Whether or not erotic imagery has been
deliberately planted, a diligent search for a phallic symbol will probably
uncover it. All of us are able to “see” all sorts of things in clouds,
mountaintops, trees, and other objects.
• Why are there no witnesses to the
preparation of embeds? If subliminals are used by so many advertisers, why was
Key unable to quote just one of them on how they employ the tactics? Is there
not one unemployed ex-stimulator who can come forward with the truth, perhaps
writing an exposé or even a how-to book? Professor Jack Haberstroh surveyed
more than 100 U.S. ad directors, and not a single one claimed to have ever
worked on a subliminal ad!
• If subliminal stimulation is rampant
and urges people to buy, why do the government and other public service
advertisers not use subliminal ads to make people stop taking drugs, abusing
children, and driving drunk? College professors could even use subliminal
messages in the slides and videos they show their classes to encourage students
to study hard, stop going to wild parties and staying up late, give up smoking
and excessive drinking, and be courteous and attentive to and absolutely
idolize their instructors!
<<END
BL>>
The academic
community, the advertising establishment, and even government regulators all
nearly unanimously pooh-poohed the notion of subliminal advertising during the
Vicary and Key eras. But, the legend lives on.
Subliminal Print Ads: Incongruities, and
Suggestiveness.
Incongruities and suggestiveness are two other types of print advertising sometimes
described as “subliminal” that do not technically meet the definition of this
term since people often are aware of them. Nonetheless, they can at times
operate at a low level of awareness, perhaps even subconsciously.
Incongruities are portions of an ad containing
an inconsistency—two or more of its elements do not logically fit together. For
example, an ad for Jantzen swimsuits included a female whose trunks were
unusually loose and contained a zipper fly, and the man with her wore swim
trunks matching her brassiere, implying crossdressing. Another ad for Benson
and Hedges cigarettes featured a protruding right hand that was placed at an
angle such that it could belong to none of the characters in the ad. Several
advertising researchers have suggested that such ads lead to more information
processing as well as arousal, and consequently more favorable ad evaluations.
Some
print ads contain suggestiveness—the
advertisement implies more than the written copy clearly states. Here, the
message is not spelled out explicitly in words but rather is subtly implied via
use of verbal language, body language, color, and other perceptual devices,
often including sexual innuendo—subtle
sexual messages. For example, a Levitra TV commercial featured a 40-ish woman
sporting a man’s dress shirt, suggesting to some observers that she had just
engaged in sexual relations. However, suggestiveness is not subliminal because
we are supposed to notice the suggestive ad elements.
Subaudible Messages. Subaudible messages (subaudible communications, audio conditioning,
threshold messaging, psychoacoustic persuasion) consist of accelerated
(time-compressed) and/or garbled speech played at a low volume and masked under
a “carrier,” such as music or ocean waves, so that the message can not be
consciously heard. The claim is that, while the message is unintelligible and
therefore goes consciously unnoticed, it is subconsciously processed, leading
to affective and/or behavioral changes.
Department
stores in both the U.S. and Canada have reportedly reduced shoplifting by fusing
bland “elevator music” with subliminal anti-theft messages, such as “I am
honest. I will not break the law and steal.” Sales organizations and athletic
teams have employed subliminal motivational tapes to rally the troops, doctors
have used them to calm patients in waiting rooms, and subaudible messages in
rock music have been blamed for encouraging Satan worship and suicide.
While
there is mixed evidence of the effectiveness of such messages, researchers note
that only individuals who are predisposed toward what the subaudible messages
advocate will accept them. Hence, a normally honest person will respond to the
suggestion “I do don't want to go to jail for stealing,” but a professional
shoplifter will not.
Subaudible
messages seem to work like hypnotism: You can subconsciously encourage people
to avoid or undertake certain behaviors only
if they are so inclined. Also, many researchers believe that subaudible
communications work due to the placebo
effect: People expect them to work, and so they do.
While
there are no reported advertising applications of subaudible messages, the
evidence suggests that this is for good reason: They would be impotent in altering
CB.
Backward Masking. Also known as backmasking and audio reversal, backward
masking entails inserting a message in reverse into an audio medium such as
a record, tape, CD, or DVD. Although the words cannot be consciously perceived
when the audio is played in its normal, forward manner, the claim is that these
imperceptible communications are heard at an unconscious level, thereby
influencing attitudes and behavior.
Reported
applications have occurred in rock music. The Beatles were among the first to
employ the technique in their music with backward messages including “Paul is
dead,” “Turn me on dead man,” and “I buried Paul.” However, this turned out to
be a public relations ploy to revitalize the group’s waning dominance. The
1970s and 1980s saw an explosion in backward masking in rock music, much being
satanic messages.
One
theory underlying backward masking is that selective cognitive processes
ordinarily screen out unwanted information. However, when data enters our brain
backward, it is not filtered, and somehow the subconscious can translate it to
become meaningful. Supposedly, when hearing these songs forward, the brain
picks up the backward messages subliminally. Consequently, they can affect
one’s mind, actions, and personality.
However,
researchers have shown this theory to be untrue. Humans simply do not have a
subconscious speech perception mechanism that can decode a reversed signal. It
appears that backward masking is ineffectual in influencing people and of no
value for marketing, other than stirring up word of mouth and publicity for
rock groups!
Conclusion on Subliminal Advertising
The
public continues to believe subliminal messaging is a public menace due to the
negative image of the advertising profession, the fact that sensationalism
sells, and people dislike the fact that advertising conspicuously attempts to influence (not manipulate) them. If folks cannot explain certain emotions or
purchases, or if they experience post-purchase regret, it is more comfortable
to blame mysterious forces at work than to take personal responsibility.
However, the evidence suggests that subliminal advertising does not work,
although it does apparently exist since there will always be dishonest people
doing deceitful things, such as sneaking hidden messages into ads. The deliberate
use of subliminal communication is immoral because it is dishonest, violates
the consumer’s right to know, and tries to control human behavior in violation
of free will.
In
those rare cases where it is used, subliminal communication is relatively ineffectual.
Subliminals only work to some degree in the case of constant message repetition
(as with subvisual messages and subaudible messages) and where audience
members are predisposed toward the message.
It
is true that in tightly controlled lab settings, subliminals have produced mild
but fleeting emotional reactions and heightened existing drives. However, there
is virtually no research evidence supporting their effectiveness to alter CB. A
big gap exists between perception and persuasion when it comes to subliminal
advertising.
Furthermore,
there are quite a number of practical difficulties in using subliminal
messages:
<<BL>>
• You know that needs and wants cannot
be created. Instead, marketers should appeal to and satisfy existing drives,
which they can heighten and influence only at a general level. While a
subliminal message saying, “Drink Coke” might induce thirst, but not
necessarily for Coke—it could trigger a desire for Pepsi or even for water.
Therefore, to change CB against sovereign consumers’ free will is impossible.
• Supraliminal stimuli
(ordinary stimuli, above the
threshold level) tend to overpower or nullify subliminal s (hidden below
the threshold level). Indeed, psychological studies demonstrate that a strong
stimulus produces a strong response and a weak stimulus a weak response.
• Perceptual thresholds vary across
persons and over time for any one individual. Consequently, what is subliminal
for some will be supraliminal for others, and what is subliminal for someone
today could be supraliminal for that person tomorrow. To go undetected by
virtually everyone, subliminal stimuli would need to be at an extremely low
threshold level, perhaps too low to have even a subconscious effect on most
people.
• People selectively screen out supraliminal
stimuli not consistent with their predispositions and probably do so for
subliminal stimuli too.
• In their normally busy worlds,
individuals do not typically give undivided attention to a stimulus as subjects
in subliminal experiments do.
• Since consumers subjectively interpret
stimuli, misinterpretation is likely. Was that message “Drink Coke,” “Drink
Cola,” “Drink Pepsi,” “Drink cocoa,” or “Stink Coke”?
<<END BL>>
Please—lose
no sleep tonight over being subliminally seduced by Madison Avenue.
Review Questions
<<NL>>
In-Class Applications
<<NL>>
1. For each of the following advertisements, identify any
evidence or possibilities of subliminal advertising based on the three types of
print ad subliminal elements described in the Background: embeds, incongruities,
and suggestiveness. Are these ads
more effective through the use of such possible subliminal elements or would
they have been just as effective without hidden messages? Note: For more
information (or, at least, opinion) on how these ads are manipulated, check out
www.angelfire.com/rock/cpar/p2k/2ksep17paperless.html.
<<FIGURES 46.2 THROUGH46.6 ABOUT HERE>>
Written Applications
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