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Negative Words Prove to be Catchy

Media Post Publications, 10/8/09

Abstract:

Subliminal images, images shown so briefly that the viewer does not consciously ‘see' them, have long been the subject of controversy, particularly in the area of advertising.

According to a study led by Professor Nilli Lavie, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, published in the journal Emotion, people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images, and demonstrates conclusively that even under such conditions, information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.

In the study, Professor Lavie and colleagues showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on screen for only a fraction of second, at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word.

The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or ‘emotional' (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.

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