The Influence of Expectancy in Subliminal Perception Experiments

The relationship between belief in subliminal perception and the outcome of subliminal perception was examined. One hundred thirty-seven college students listened to a tape of a contemporary jazz composition. Although the music did not contain a subliminal message, the subjects who had reported belief in subliminal perception reported significantly greater mood changes while they listened to the tape than the nonbelieving subjects did. Also, the believers reported hearing a nonexistent subliminal message significantly more often than the nonbelievers did.