There’s also little evidence to support the many claims that evil messages are embedded into heavy metal and rock music, although people regularly blame these “hidden messages” for bad behavior, saying that the messages are encoded into the music, and often only revealed if you play the song backwards. In 1985, the families of two teenagers killed in a suicide pact sued the band Judas Priest over some alleged satanic phrases in their songs, which the families claimed influenced the boys’ behavior. Similar allegations have been levied against groups like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Ozzy Osbourne. A judge dismissed the Judas Priest case, stating that even if the subliminal messages existed (which he doubted), there was no proof that they worked.
The Mind Sees, Even When the Eye Doesn’t
Studies have shown that people can indeed respond to unconsciously perceived stimuli. In one study, when a fleeting image was followed by an electric shock, subjects became conditioned so that their palms sweated in anticipation once they “saw” the image. Another study in the United Kingdom demonstrated that people’s receptiveness to unconscious stimuli depended on the brain’s “spare capacity.” If participants were performing a difficult task that required full attention, their brains did not allocate resources to any subliminal activity. Only when participants executed a repetitive or boring task did their brains devote energy to registering the subliminal image they’d seen.
People can recognize and process unconscious stimuli, but there’s no evidence that shows that the stimuli alters behavior in any way. Since the 1950s, advertisers have tried to insert subliminal stimuli into popular entertainment, with no discernible results. There’s also no evidence to back up the claims of programs that offer subliminal or unconscious smoking cessation, weight loss, or language learning.
From Myth to Meme
Companies still sometimes try to use subliminal advertising, with little effect. During an episode of Food Network’s Iron Chef America in 2007, a McDonald’s logo flashed across the screen for a single frame. The network, for its part, claimed that it was a computer error. In 1978, police in Wichita, Kansas tried to convince a serial killer to turn himself in using subliminal messages. They created a commercial with the suggestion “Call the chief” spliced into the middle, to entice the person to come forward. It didn’t work, and he wasn’t arrested until 2005.
The mythology of subliminal messaging has made its way into every aspect of pop culture, lampooned by TV shows like The Simpsons, X-Files, and Family Guy, and movies like Fight Club. Although the idea of subliminal messaging started off as a legitimate idea, it’s quickly become a cultural joke. But that hasn’t stopped plenty of conspiracy theorists from seeing messages in their ice cubes.
