Effects of Subliminal Priming on Consumer Choices

Subliminal messages can influence the choices and behavior of humans. Priming affects the decisions but mostly for a short duration. It can also change thoughts and practice for a short period. The present study aimed to test whether priming could influence choices in our day to day to decisions. The sample consisted of 66 students of IIT Kharagpur. Group 1 and 2(treatment groups) comprised 25 and 20 respondents, respectively, whereas, the control group comprised 21 respondents. Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to evaluate the differences in choice problems responses among groups. Chi-Square was used to investigate the priming effect on the word completion task. It was found that only 22.2 percent of the participants had any impact on their decisions due to the scenarios presented to them. The choices of the nature-related group were eco-friendlier and cheap, whereas the preferences of the technology-related group were more convenient and technology-oriented.