Do subliminal priming effects on emotion have clinical potential?

Abstract

Subliminal primes are able to influence the affective evaluation of subsequent supra-liminal stimuli. For example, Murphy and Zajonc (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64, 723–739, 1993) found that Chinese characters are evaluated more positively after they have been preceded by subliminal smiling faces. However, to be ther-apeutically relevant, subliminal primes should be able to change strong emotions. The present experiment explored this issue. Spider-fearful and non-fearful undergraduates were exposed to subliminally presented (8ms) positive, negative, and neutral primes. Primes were immediately followed by a picture of a spider or snake (1500ms). Subjects then evaluated the affective quality of the picture, using visual analogue scales. No evidence was found to suggest that (un) pleasantness of pictures can be modulated by subliminal priming. In the non-fearful group, spiders were evaluated as more frightening after negative priming. Yet, such an effect was not evident for the fearful group. The findings indicate that subliminal priming only affects the evaluation of relatively neutral stimuli. Thus, subliminal techniques seem to have little or no therapeutic value.

Key Words:

• Subliminal primes
• Affective pictures
• Sptder-fearfuls