Perception of a stimulus presented below the threshold for conscious recognition is called subliminal perception. Subliminal means below the normal limen or threshold or limit. An experiment done on the college students can be taken as an illustration for subliminal perception. A set of college students was shown a cartoon character flashed on a screen. The cartoon was paired with photographs of faces expressing joy or disgust. The faces were flashed at a speed that made them undetectable. Since the students have not previously seen the cartoon character, they were forming a first impression. Apparently, the students chose more negative terms to describe the cartoon character that had been paired with a disgusted face.
Many firms have tried subliminal method of advertisements. In one such attempt, the words “Eat popcorn and Drink Coca-cola” were flashed in theatre screens for 1/3000 second every 5 seconds during movies. In the period of 6 weeks the messages ran, the firm claimed an increase of 57.5 percent in popcorn sales and an 18.1 percent increase in Coca-cola sales. However well-controlled experiments have shown that subliminal stimuli are basically weak stimuli. More over, subliminal advertisements have proved largely ineffective. Even so, advertisers still use subliminal messages
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