The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion

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In the modern film industry, movie theaters across the nation earn billions of dollars due solely to ticket sales. When the amount of funds spent on butter-soaked popcorn, fizzing soft drinks, and handfuls of teeth-rotting confections is factored in, theater owners ought to be sufficiently content with the money being raked in. But even with that being said, no billionaire CEO is going to turn away an opportunity to earn even more. In the introduction of “The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion” written by Anthony R. Pratkanis, summarizes the infamous subliminal persuasion experiment conducted by James Vicary in 1957. Vicary, a market researcher, administered an investigation involving popcorn, Coca Cola products and the big silver screen. During showings of the 1955 film Picnic, Vicary rigged the film projector to flash the phrases “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coke” repeatedly throughout the movie so quickly that it went unnoticed for quite a while. After running this experiment for six weeks, Vicary claimed that the sales of Coke products increased by 18.1% and those of popcorn by 57.8%. The media of the day spread the story like wildfire and scientists scrambled to replicate the procedure. America between the years 1953 and 1962 was cluttered with talk of Korean War brainwashing and communist mind control. Films of this time such as The Manchurian Candidate, which told the fictional story of a military platoon being brainwashed by the Soviet KGB, aided the fear surrounding these ideas and gave Americans more reason to believe that Vicary’s experiment was legitimate. In 1962, Vicary admitted in an interview with Advertising Age magazine that the original study he had conducted was a hoax created with the intention o... ... middle of paper ... ...rch presented does not establish that subliminal stimuli, even if perceived, may precipitate conduct of this magnitude.” This case and its verdict had a large impact on the theories about subliminal messaging. The fascination surrounding the study of subliminal persuasion falls under the classification “cargo-cult science”, a term coined by physicist Richard Feynman, describing a study that “has all the trappings of science” but lacks the sense of skepticism. Since there are no specific aspects of subliminal compliance gaining that seem like they could be effective with minor “tweaking”, the entire pseudo-science has been demystified. Works Cited Pratkins, A. (n.d.). The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion. - Committee of Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from

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