“Men who associate alcohol with sexual desire can become sexually stimulated just by being unconsciously exposed to words related to drinking… Dr. Ronald S. Friedman of the University of Missouri and his colleagues surveyed about 150 male undergraduates about their alcohol use and their views on alcohol and sex. The students were asked questions like whether having a few drinks would increase their sexual arousal or enjoyment. Then, a month later, they were placed in front of computers, shown a series of letters and asked to say whether they formed words. What the students did not know was that words like ‘beer,’ ‘keg’ and ‘drunk’ were being flashed quickly on the screen and then ‘masked’ with other letters… The students were then asked to look at photographs of 21 young women and rate them for attractiveness. The researchers found that those students who had earlier expressed a connection between alcohol and arousal were more likely to say a woman was attractive than those men who did not hold similar feelings about alcohol. What is going on is unclear, the researchers said, but it appears, they wrote, that ‘the effects of alcohol expectancies on behavior are remarkably subtle and far-reaching.’ Although women were not tested, the researchers said there was no reason to believe they would not respond similarly. On the other hand, they theorized, it is possible that women who believe alcohol makes them more sexually receptive may rate photographs of men as less attractive, as a defense mechanism.” —New York Times (US)

Periodically there is a big fuss about the prospect that cynical corporate marketing executives might be using subliminal perception techniques in their advertising: film previews are intercut with faster-than-perception “Buy Coke” messages, the nose of Joe Camel is a phallic device promising machismo to men who smoke, etc. In response, some scholars have gone so far as to say that subliminal perception is itself nonsense: “Subliminal advertising and psychotherapeutic effects from subliminal tapes are ideas whose scientific status appears to be on a par with wearing copper bracelets to cure arthritis.” After all, such sceptics claim, the very term “subliminal perception” is an oxymoron. If a stimulus is subliminal, how can it really be perceived? Or if it’s perceived, how can it be subliminal? It’s like saying that you see the invisible or eat air.

Nevertheless, the notion of subliminal perception remains appealing to people, and every once in a while it gets a boost from the scientific community itself. In this case, college students who previously associated alcohol with sex find themselves aroused when “unconsciously exposed” to alcohol-related words hidden in strings of text. When asked if the students really perceived the words, the lead researcher said “You might know you saw something,” and the emphasis seemed to have been on the word might. In other words, this study would seem to lend credence to the reality of subliminal perception (or at least some degree of it).

And if, like PervScan, you walk around some metropolis cluttered with signage featuring nubile models, you wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that all the myths are true — that subliminal perception is real and that advertisers feed you unconscious doses of sex in order to whet your appetite to buy. Why? Because if it all weren’t true, why would you walk around in a constant state of heightened arousal?

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