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'Subliminal' as the word suggests, means 'below the limen or threshold'. Subliminal Perception means perceiving a stimuli that is below the threshold of normal conscious perception. Our unconscious mind grasps things which many a times our conscious mind does not. This explains why we do not like something or someone without any evident reason. Maybe, our unconscious mind finds the stimuli unpleasant in some way that we cannot logically comprehend. This knowledge is rampantly used in advertisement and music industry in more than one ways. This paper analyses the concept of subliminal perception, how it works, and how it is being exploited in a negative manner. It also explores how it can be used positively, so that it benefits not only the corporate industry but also the society in general.
Keywords: subliminal perception, advertisements, music, positive messages
We live in a world full of various stimuli. We use our senses visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory to perceive this world around us. As intelligent beings, we use thinking, reasoning, problem-solving in order to deal with various situations in our surroundings. These are all the conscious ways in which our mind works. We are mostly aware of the functioning of our mind during these processes. However, this is not the only level on which our mind works. There are other planes as well. They are the subconscious and the unconscious.
The subconscious mind plays many important roles that our conscious mind is not even aware of. From involuntary functions of our body such as the beating of the heart to storing things in our memory, our subconscious is essential for our normal functioning. One of the key functions of this subconscious mind is to store our beliefs or the "inner picture" about the world and how we fit into it (Jones, 2007). These 'inner pictures" generate our thoughts and emotions, which in turn generate our actions, experiences and results.
Subliminalperception
Subliminal means "beneath the threshold of human conscious awareness." It comes from Latin, i.e. sub (below) and limen (threshold). Subliminal perception occurs when the stimuli which is presented below the threshold of awareness influences information processing, emotion or action (Cleeremans, 1991). Physiologically speaking, the ability to process and make use of unseen visual input may...