Question

Someone help me understand this a lot more, please

Answer 1

You could write this essay in a couple different ways. The point is to take an argumentative stance and then provide research for your stance.

These are some ways you could go, based on your opinion:

a) that subliminal messages are picked up by our senses, meaning they are real and do affect behavior

b) that subliminal messages are not picked up by our senses and do not affect behavior

If you're not sure which stance to take, just do some general googling of subliminal messages and whether they're real & affect behavior.

Once you find your position, start researching specifically for that. Remember that this is argumentative- you're taking a position- so you want to have real facts as support. Use reputable sites (look for .edu, .org, .gov instead of .com).

Craft your thesis, which is the main claim you're making. This will go in the introduction of your essay.

A basic thesis may go like:

Subliminal messages are/are not real, and they have/do not have an effect on behavior. (You would pick between belief or nonbelief).

Once you have your thesis, you can start organizing your information around it and write the essay!

Answer 2

Answer:

I have seen several different accounts on what subliminal messages can do. There are those who say they are powerful and can be used to a varied scope of purposes such as weight loss and language learning. There are, on the other hand, those who claim it is all just a myth. Still, after some reading here, some watching there, I have come to the conclusion that they may indeed work. The question may be what we understand as subliminal message.

To me, it is not the message of which we are completely unaware - like adding some background noises to a song that are actually words stating something. I'd rather stick to another definition. Subliminal message is what our unconscious mind uses when making decisions. We receive such messages when we are very much awake and technically aware of what is going on. But then we let go of whatever it is that we absorbed and our consciousness moves on to what is right in front of us. However, when the time comes to make a decision, no matter how small, it is our unconscious mind that takes the lead. We think we know why we chose that path, that person, that product, that risk - we rationalize explanations and justifications. But, truth be told, we chose them with that obscure part of our minds that controls our behavior for us.

In a study published in Neuroscience of Consciousness, researchers found that subliminal messages do have an impact in delayed decision-making. Even after an hour, the subjects' conscious decisions about their income was affected by subliminal messages presented to them. Imagine how much of our decisions in life is controlled by things we don't even know, that our brain threw at the hands of our unconscious mind? I believe we can use that to our favor, reprogram our brains and behavioral patterns. We can choose better paths with better messages.

Reference:

Simon Ruch, Marc Alain Züst, Katharina Henke, Subliminal messages exert long-term effects on decision-making, Neuroscience of Consciousness, Volume 2016, Issue 1, 2016, niw013, https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niw013