When You Become a Superman: Subliminal Exposure to Death-Related Stimuli Enhances Men's Physical Force

An Investigation Into the Unconscious Influence of Mortality Salience Upon Sentencing Decisions

This study aimed to explore if unconscious awareness of death influences the harshness of offender sentencing. According to Terror Management Theory death is anxiety-provoking, and self-esteem and a belief in a shared cultural worldview keep anxiety at bay. When these factors are challenged then death awareness increases. These dynamics could be relevant in a court setting in which judges have to make decisions regarding offenders who may have different world views and in cases that trigger the awareness of mortality. We used subliminal priming to activate the awareness of death and recorded the effect it had on decision-making against a hypothetical offender. Participants (N = 303) were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental mortality condition or a neutral control condition. Analysis revealed that death-related subliminal priming brought about harsher sentencing effects than the control. The results suggest that subconscious awareness of death may bias decision-making when sentencing.

Subliminal mortality salience does not increase physical strength output in double-blind randomized controlled trial

Introduction

Using the morality salience paradigm, this research tested whether subliminal death stimuli lead to increased physical strength. Moreover, it was investigated if mindfulness and self-esteem instability influence terror management.

Methods

In total, data from 160 undergraduate sports students were analyzed. Participants completed a word decision task in which they were presented with either the word death or pain for 28.5 ms. Before and after the task, their grip strength was measured using a hand dynamometer.

Results

Linear mixed models could neither confirm the effect of the mortality salience hypothesis on strength nor an influence of mindfulness and self-esteem.

Discussion

The results raise the question of a potential influence of subliminal mortality salience on athletic performance and how mindfulness and self-esteem instability affect terror management.

Subliminal Priming-State of the Art and Future Perspectives

The influence of subliminal priming (behavior outside of awareness) in humans is an interesting phenomenon and its understanding is crucial as it can impact behavior, choices, and actions. Given this, research about the impact of priming continues to be an area of investigative interest, and this paper provides a technical overview of research design strengths and issues in subliminal priming research. Efficient experiments and protocols, as well as associated electroencephalographic and eye movement data analyses, are discussed in detail. We highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different priming experiments that have measured affective (emotional) and cognitive responses. Finally, very recent approaches and findings are described to summarize and emphasize state-of-the-art methods and potential future directions in research marketing and other commercial applications.