PRIMING THE DAREDEVILS - Universiteit van Amsterdam

PRIMING THE DAREDEVILS:

The role of personality traits in the effect of visual

subliminal priming on product preference

Master’s Thesis Msc. in Business Administration – Marketing Track

Amsterdam Business School

Student : Ravenska Atwinda Difa Student ID : 10872078 Supervisor : Tina Dudenhöffer, Msc. Second reader : dhr. dr. Alfred Zerres Date of submission: 24 June 2016 Version : Final draft Word count : 12412

PRIMING THE DAREDEVILS

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Statement of Originality

This document is written by Student Ravenska Difa who declares to take full responsibility

for the content of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources

other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.

The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of

completion of the work, not for the content.


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Abstract

This research explores the effect of subliminal priming towards individuals’ product

preference, and whether this effect varies based on the respondents’ personality traits. The basic

notion of the research question lies on the theories of subliminal priming and personality traits.

Past studies in subliminal priming showed that when an individual is exposed to a subliminal prime

prior to making a decision, they will have a tendency to choose the primed offering. More recent

studies further explored this effect and suggested that individuals who scored high in certain

personality traits are more sensitive to subliminal priming which are in line with their personal

characteristics.

This study measures one specific personality trait namely ‘sensation seeking’ and assesses

whether individuals who scores high in sensation seeking are more reactive towards sensation

seeking relevant primes (i.e. individuals primed with words such as “Adventure” or “Seek

Adventure”) when exposed to one prior to making leisure activities choices (i.e. ‘Hike-and-Track’,

‘Weekend in a Country Side’, ‘Skydiving’, and ‘Spa Treatment’). Results showed that on average

people who were previously primed have higher tendencies to choose high sensation seeking

actvities (i.e. Skydiving) compared to those who were not primed. In addition, although no

moderating effect was found, the study revealed that there were differences in the priming effects

between high sensation seeking individuals and low sensation seeking individuals. The study adds

additional finding which found that the use of imperative sentences in priming resulted in lower

priming effect compared to the use of static words across all participants.

With the above findings, the present study revalidates the importance of taking individual

personal characteristics and the means of priming content into account in subliminal priming.


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Acknowledgements

This master’s thesis would not have been succesfully completed without the support, trust and

encouragement from my family, friends and colleagues. Without them, the thesis process would

not go as smooth and inspiring as it has been. Thank you for the endless reminder that reassure me

to always deliver the maximum result.

I would specifically thank my supervisor Tina Dudenhöffer for the mentoring, constant

constructive feedback, and in-depth discussions which I greatly had benefited from. I truly owe

the success of this thesis to her for giving the much needed supervision any students can ever have.


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Table of Contents

Statement of Originality ............................................................................................................................. 2

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 4

List of tables................................................................................................................................................. 6

List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. 6

List of Abbreviation .................................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 8

1 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................. 13

1.1 Subliminal priming .................................................................................................................... 13

1.1.1 History ................................................................................................................................... 13

1.1.2 Types of subliminal priming ................................................................................................. 14

1.1.3 Priming, consumer behaviour, and product choices .............................................................. 15

1.2 Factors influencing the effectiveness of subliminal priming ..................................................... 17

1.2.1 Personality traits and subliminal priming .............................................................................. 18

1.2.2 Sensation seeking .................................................................................................................. 20

1.2.3 Priming content and subliminal priming ............................................................................... 22

2 Data and Method .............................................................................................................................. 26

2.1 Participants ............................................................................................................................... 26

2.2 Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 26

2.3 Measures .................................................................................................................................... 27

2.3.1 Participants’ level of sensation seeking ................................................................................ 27

2.3.2 Participants’ choice of leisure activities ................................................................................ 28

2.4 Pre-test and manipulation ......................................................................................................... 30

2.4.1 Subliminal check ................................................................................................................... 30

2.4.2 Accessibility, applicability and motivation ........................................................................... 30

2.5 Results........................................................................................................................................ 31

2.5.1 Main effect of subliminal priming towards product choices ................................................. 31

2.5.2 Different effects of subliminal priming based on individuals’ level of sensation seeking .... 33

2.5.3 Possible reverse priming effect resulting from the use of imperative sentence .................... 39


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3 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 43

3.1 Hypothesis 1 .............................................................................................................................. 43

3.2 Hypothesis 2 .............................................................................................................................. 44

3.3 Hypothesis 3 .............................................................................................................................. 45

3.4 General discussion and conclusion ........................................................................................... 46

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 50

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................... 54

Appendix 1. Items and descriptive statistics for BSSS ............................................................................ 54

Appendix 2. Online survey experiment ................................................................................................... 55

Appendix 3. Examples of subliminal seduction ...................................................................................... 59

List of tables

Table 1. Mean, Standard deviation and correlations of study (quantitative) variables………..…28

Table 2. Contingency Table – Primed individuals vs. Non Primed individuals………………....32

Table 3. Contingency Table……………………………………………………………………...34

Table 4. Contingency Table – Primed individuals High SS vs. Low SS………………………...37

Table 5. Moderation analysis using hierarchical regression……………………………………..38

Table 6. Contingency Table – Primed individuals Seek Adventure vs. Adventure……………..40

List of Figures

Figure 1. The effect of subliminal priming towards ad persuasiveness, consumer behaviour and

brand choice ……………………………………………………………………………...17

Figure 2. Personality traits as moderators of the subliminal priming effect……………………..19

Figure 3. Hypothesis 1 – Sensation seeking related subliminal prime positively influences the

preference for high sensation seeking activities……………………………………………….....21


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Figure 4. Hypothesis 2a and b – Individuals‘ level of sensation seeking influences the effect of

subliminal priming towards product preference………………………………………………….22

Figure 5. Hypothesis 3a – The usage of imperative sentence in subliminal priming results in reverse

priming effect…………………………………………………………………………….24

Figure 6. Hypothesis 3b – The reverse priming effect is especially pronounced for participants

scored high in sensation seeking………………………………………………………….25

Figure 7. Expected moderating effect of sensation seeking level on subliminal priming effect…36

Figure 8. Two possible independent effects of two predictor variables………………………….36

Figure 9. Results of the present study – independent effects of individuals’ level of sensation

seeking and priming content on leisure activities choices……………………………………42

List of Abbreviations

BSSS…… Brief Sensation Seeking

SS………..Sensation Seeking

SSS………Sensation Seeking Scale


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Introduction

Have you ever craved for something out of the blue or went to the supermarket and ended up

buying things that were not in your list? Or, do you sometimes feel like buying something out of

your ‘gut feeling’? How if those instances were not caused by an ‘instict’ nor coincidence, but

instead, a set up? At one point in life, people must have heard the controversy of hidden messages

placed in the media that eventually affects peoples behavior. As crazy and unethical it may sound,

several occasions confirmed the application of such persuasion attempt. For example, several well

known brands such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Disney were accused of putting hidden sexual

messages in their marketing campaigns to attract more consumers. Additionally, Fedex’ logo

showed a shape of an arrow in between the letter ‘E’and ‘X’ which subliminally communicates

the company’s fast and efficient service (Butler, 2014).

Subliminal priming – also referred to as subliminal persuasion is defined as the exposure of a

stimulus or an association of words or objects prior to carrying out an action below the threshold

of perception (Hawkins, 1970). The concept became particularly well-known when James Vicary,

an American researcher, claimed to have increased the sales of Coke and Popcorn by 57 percent

in 1957 by secretly flashing words of persuasion on the screen of a movie theatre in front of

thousands of people (Karremans, Stroebe, & Claus, 2006). The words ‘Eat Popcorn’ and ‘Drink

Coca Cola’ were played in a single frame for 1/3000 of a second – which was supposedly too short

to be caught by naked eye, but long enough to be picked up by the audience’s subconscious, and

consequently persuading audiences to buy Popcorn and Coca Cola (Moore, 1982). Although the

study of Vicary was later known as a hoax as many researchers failed to revalidate the same results

(Strahan, Spencer, Zanna, 2002), starting early 2000 academia was finally able to find empirical

evidence which showed that subliminal priming can be effective under certain conditions.


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Henceforth, the interest around the application of subliminal priming – especially in a marketing

context, continued to emerge.

In marketing, subliminal priming refers to “a technique of exposing consumers to product

pictures, brand names, or other marketing stimuli without the consumers having conscious

awareness” (Trappey, 1996, p. 571). Strahan et al. (2002) demonstrated that subliminal priming

might be effective in influencing consumption behaviour and enhancing persuasiveness of an ad

as long as the prime, e.g. text, picture, or sound, could help in pursuing a goal (also referred to as

‘goal-relevant’) and there is a preliminary motive of the recipient of the prime to pursue the goal.

In Strahan et al.’s study (2002), it was found that participants who were primed with the word

‘thirst’ drink more and were more persuaded by an ad for thirst-quenching beverage when they

were thirsty. Karremans et al. (2006) elevated the theory to the next level by showing that

subliminal priming not only influences behaviour and ad persuasiveness, but also affects

consumers’ brand choices. In his study, participants who were thirsty showed an increase in their

intentions to drink ‘Lipton Ice Tea’ after being subliminally primed with the brand name.

The above past studies on subliminal priming focused primarily on conditions where

subliminal advertising has proven to be affective (Bermeitinger et al., 2009; Karremans et al.,

2006; Veltkamp, Custers & Aarts, 2011). A limited amount of studies looked at the respondents

and asked, ‘For whom does subliminal advertising work (not work)?’ (Bustin, Jones, Hansenne &

Quoidbach, 2015; Yoshino, Kimura, Yoshida, Takahashi & Nomura, 2005). If situational factors

are believed to influence the effectiveness of subliminal priming, one might argue that this efficacy

will also be influenced by individual differences. One study that captures this concept is by Bustin

et al. (2015) which demonstrates that individual personality traits (also known as dispositions or

characters) moderate the effect of subliminal priming in general. In the study, Bustin et al. (2015)


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argued that individuals’ differences in the level of personality traits such as extraversion (social

and outgoing), novelty (being different) or sensation seeking, affect one’s goals and needs, which

subsequently are linked to consumer choice and different sensitivity towards advertisement. The

study presented that people who scored high in certain personality traits are more sensitive to

subliminal priming which is in line with the characteristic of such personality traits. It was shown

that participants who ranked high in sensation seeking showed a higher intention to drink “Red

Bull” – a drink perceived to be resonant to the risk-taker characteristic of sensation seekers, after

being subliminally primed with the brand name. On the contrary, there was no effect of subliminal

priming found on participants who scored low in sensation seeking. The result demonstrated that

there is a significant moderating effect of personality traits with regards to people’s sensitivity to

subliminal priming.

Building onto the concept, this study aims to revalidate the theory that personality traits

moderate the effect of subliminal priming by testing another potential outcome variable namely

product preference. In addition, the present study tested a different situational setting by looking

into the upper level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which is individuals’ self-actualization e.g.

recreational needs, needs for new experiences or leisure activities (Reisinger, 2009). Moreover,

instead of using a brand name, participants were subliminally primed with the word associated

with sensation seeking. Once primed, participants were asked to choose between different

offerings of leisure activities with different perceived sensation levels. Based on the previous

research, it is expected that people who scored high in sensation seeking will be more likely to be

affected by sensation seeking associated primes than people who scored low in sensation seeking.

Past studies have also looked into the use of static word vs. imperative sentence in

persuasion tactics, and how each brings positive and reversed effects based on perceived sources


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of persuasion (Laran, Dalton & Andrade, 2011). The study by Laran et al. (2011) found that the

usage of imperative sentences in persuasion resulted in consumers’ resistance towards the

persuasion attempt. As a consequence, consumers acted in contrary manner. A similar concept

was also applied in subliminal priming e.g. the use of a static word ‘Cola’ vs. imperative word

‘Drink cola’ in the study by Hawkins (1970) – although the study did not result in significant

different results. For these reasons, another potential predictor variable namely ‘primer content’

(i.e. the type of words used in the prime) was added to the present research, dividing the priming

type into two: static word vs. imperative word. As per study by Laran et al. (2011), it is expected

that the use of static words in priming will result in positive priming effects while the use of

imperative word will result in reversed priming effects.

In this study, an online survey experiment containing certain instructions and a set of

questions was conducted. Participants were asked to imagine as if they have won a leisure package

and needed to choose one out of four different leisure packages. These leisure packages consists

of two high sensation seeking activities and two lower sensation seeking activities. Before

participants were able to make their choice, a ‘commercial’ video was shown to the participants –

which ultimately contained (or did not contain) sensation seeking primes. There are three

treatments in the experiment i.e. video which does not include prime, video with imperative

sentence prime ‘Seek Adventure’, or video with static word prime ‘Adventure’. Once participants

have been (or not been) primed, participants stated their choice by clicking one of the leisure

activities. Based on previous research surrounding subliminal priming and the moderating effect

of personality traits, it is expected that participants who are primed with sensation seeking concept

(both ‘Seek Adventure’ and ‘Adventure’) are more likely to choose sensation seeking leisure

activities. This effect is also expected to be different among participants who scored high versus


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low in sensation seeking level. Finally, it is theorized that the use of static word in a prime will

result in a more positive effect compared to the use of imperative sentence due to the reversed

priming effect.

Prior to the results and discussion sections, an overview and the basic concept of subliminal

priming, personality traits, sensation seeking and priming content are presented. Furthermore, as

a means of contribution, the limitation, implication and suggestions for future research are

discussed at the end of the study.


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1 Literature Review

1.1 Subliminal priming

1.1.1 History

Schvaneveldt and Meyer (1973) described priming as an effect in memory whereby the

exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another stimulus. Priming originated from the

word ‘prime’ which is defined in Oxford dictionary as “make something ready for a use or action,

or make someone ready for a situation” typically by supplying them with relevant information

(Oxford Dictionaries, 2016). By nature, priming can be done consciously or unconsciously –

depending on the way the prime is presented. Hawkins (1970) defines the unconscious processing

of a prime as the registration of a stimulus below the threshold of conscious perception, also known

as subliminal.

The concept of subliminal priming originated from the field of psychology, often explained

side by side with supraliminal priming. Supraliminal priming is a concept where people are aware

of the presence of the cue, but not on how it can influence them. In subliminal priming, people are

not even aware of the presence of the cue itself (Strahan et al., 2002). This phenomenon where the

consumer is exposed to and acts upon certain information without acknowledging the source is

known as source amnesia (Schacter, Harbluk, & McLachlan, 1984). Although the two types of

priming are different in nature, the influence effect of the prime is the same. The determinant of

the effectiveness of the prime is whether people realize the influence power of the prime and

whether they have the ability to control the influence (Strahan et al., 2002).

Although the concept of subliminal priming stated to be known since the late 19th Century,

the focus on the commercial application of subliminal priming only started to emerge following

Vicary’s study in 1957 (Broyles, 2006). Since then, academic and commercial papers surrounding


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subliminal priming and subliminal advertising started to develop – not only in the area of

marketing, but also psychology, social politics, and, even, military (Bermeitinger et al., 2009;

Karremans et al., 2006; Veltkamp et al., 2011).

The application of subliminal advertising invites numerous reactions from consumers

around the world, though mainly negative, as it is considered to be unethical. Consequently,

subliminal advertising has been legally banned in several countries including the United States,

the United Kingdom, and Australia (Karremans et al., 2006).

1.1.2 Types of subliminal priming

Different studies described different types of subliminal stimulation techniques. In the

study by Moore (1982), the author described three identifiable means of subliminal stimulation:

1. Brief presentation of visual stimuli, also known as tachistoscopic – projecting or

flashing a (series of) brief image(s) into a screen at rapid speed to test visual perception

(Kelly, 1979; Moore, 1982). The objective of this technique is to flash a visual stimulus

so quickly that it is unnoticeable, nevertheless, registered subconsciously and

consequently affect subsequent behaviour.

2. Sub-audible messages – also known as auditory masking which involves “the use of

accelerated speech in low volume auditory messages” (Moore, 1982, p.39). This

technique of audio stimuli is perceived to be weak and lacking empirical evidence.

3. Subliminal seduction – embedded sexual imagery or words in pictorial advertisements,

which “supposedly influences consumers to buy and find more satisfaction with the

advertised brands” (Gable, Wilkens, Harris & Feinberg, 1987, p. 27). Although many

companies were allegedly using sexual subliminal stimuli in their advertisements,

including Heineken, Skittles, Burger King and Coca Cola (as per Annex 3), the


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empirical study by Gable et al. (1987) established that subliminally embedded sexual

images or words in printed advertising do not significantly influence consumer

preference towards the illustrations.

1.1.3 Priming, consumer behaviour, and product choices

One of the studies that was able to demonstrate the effect of subliminal priming on

consumer behaviour is of Strahan et al. (2002), which discovered that subliminal priming enhances

persuasiveness of an ad and affects the actual consumption behaviour when certain conditions are

met. In the study, thirsty participants who were subliminally primed with the concept of thirst (i.e.

thirst related words) had the tendency to drink more compared to those who were not primed, and

showed higher preferences towards the thirst-quenching beverage. A more recent study by

Karremans et al. (2006) demonstrated that this priming effect also influences brand preferences.

Participants were primed using a brand name and asked to make choices between two brands. The

study shows that thirsty participants who were primed with the brand name ‘Lipton Ice’ (a thirst

quenching drink) have a higher probability of choosing ‘Lipton Ice’, compared to non-thirsty

participants.

Both studies discuss the role of goal relevancy and individuals’ motivation in the

effectiveness of subliminal priming. For subliminal priming to work, the prime needs to be relevant

for the pursuance of the goal, and the responsents must have the motivation to pursue the goal. For

example, when a woman is exposed to a prime related to a shaver, she will not be influenced to

buy it simply because there is no motivation to buy one in the first place. Strahan et al. (2002)

demonstrated the same idea when exposing a beverage prime to non-thirsty individuals. Subliminal

primes in this case act as a cognitive cue which activate needs that are already present. Hence,

subliminal priming seems to provide ‘access’ to individuals’ existing needs for the primed object


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and encourage the pursuance of the goal when it is applicable (i.e. when there is motivation to do

so) (Strahan et al., 2002).

Now this is the key of the two aforementioned studies: participants clearly have (or at least

were manipulated to have) the motivation to pursue the goal. In both Strahan et al.’s (2002) and

Karremans et al.’s (2006) studies, the participants were thirsty or made to be thirsty by giving them

specific thirst inducing foods (i.e. salty snacks). The need that was presented was a drink which is

a deficiency or a basic need. Therefore, there is a clear and rather strong motivation for people to

satisfy this need. The longer this need is unmet, the stronger the need will become (Huitt, 2004).

What happens if the motivation is unrelated to specific needs, is rather latent or not as strong? Will

the same subliminal priming effect work on a different product or service offerings other than food

and beverage, for example leisure needs? Strahan et al. (2002) proved that this would still work by

demonstrating that priming a sad face enhances the persuasiveness of an ad for a mood-restoring

product. The need which was tested is the need to interact with other people, which is also a part

of Maslow’s higher level of needs (Huitt, 2004; Reisinger, 2009). Other recent research showed

that the subliminal priming effect can also work with no presence of the real motivation itself. By

presenting the motivation in the people’s mind as ‘desirable’ can be enough to activate the

willingness to pursue the goal, the concept known as subliminal conditioning (Veltkamp, 2011).

With the above assumptions, it is expected that the subliminal priming effect will also work on

individuals’ preferences of products or services that fulfil higher level of needs, such as self

actualization needs e.g. leisure activities choices.

Studies discussed above summarized that subliminal priming not only enhances

persuasion, but also affects consumer behaviour, preferences, and brand choices. Though it is

important for the prime to be relevant to individuals’ needs at that specific point in time, the need


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does not have to be ‘real’ and can be something that is ‘conditioned’. It does not matter whether

the need pre-exists naturally or is created, as long as it is present and provides enough motive for

an individual to pursue them, it is sufficient to make priming works.

With this notion, it is expected that individuals who are subliminally primed with words

associated with a specific concept will have higher tendency to choose products or services which

is in line with the concept compared to individuals who are not primed. When the aforementioned

concept is applied into individuals’ choice of higher level needs i.e. leisure activities choices, it is

assumed that the same subliminal effect will take place.

Goal-relevant (1, 2) (subliminal) prime

Ad’s persuasiveness (1)

Motive to pursue the goal (1, 2)

Consumption behavior (2) (e.g. drink consumption)

Brand Choice (2)

Figure 1. The effect of subliminal priming towards ad persuasiveness, consumer behaviour and

brand choice (Karremans et al., 2006; Strahan et al., 2002)

1.2 Factors influencing the effectiveness of subliminal priming

Although the effect of subliminal priming on ad persuasiveness, consumer behaviour and

brand choice is confirmed under certain condition or situational setting, it goes without saying that

this effect is neither independent, nor isolated from other influencing factors. These factors can be


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related to the nature of the prime itself, such as the type of prime varying between picture or word,

the content of the prime, for example the use of brand name, associative word, or persuasion

sentence, or the frequency of the prime (e.g. one time vs. multiple exposures) – to name a view.

Influencing factors can also come from the priming target as well as the individual’s personal

characteristics. Research conducted in psychoanalytics demonstrated that individuals‘ personal

characteristics such as level in anxiety, social desirability, and personal preferences might

moderate the subliminal priming effect (Bustin et al., 2015). Considering the importance of these

influencing factors, the present study explores the potential influence of two possible predicting

factors: personality traits and priming content.

1.2.1 Personality traits and subliminal priming

Despite being a seemingly obvious influential factor, limited research has focused on the

impact of dispositional factors on the effect of subliminal priming. In the field of psychology, there

are quite a number of studies surrounding the relationship between persuasion and personality

traits. This so called message-person congruence is based on the understanding that varieties of

personality traits result in different types of value or motivations, which eventually reflected in the

individuals’ diverse sensitivity towards specific type of stimuli. Stimulus which are in line with

individuals’ motivational orientation are therefore expected to be evaluated more positively (Hirsh,

Kang, & Bodenhausen, 2012).

As one of the studies which specifically addresses the relevancy of personality traits in the

effect of subliminal priming, Bustin et al. (2012) demonstrated that personal dispositions moderate

the effect of subliminal priming towards consumer preferences. Participants who scored high in

sensation seeking showed higher intention to drink “Red Bull” – a drink associated with high

sensation seeking activities – after previously being primed with the brand name, compared to no


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effect of priming when applied to participants who scored low in sensation seeking. The study

proposed the following potential explanatory reasons: Firstly, depending on personality traits,

people might have higher sensitivity to specific types of subliminal persuasion, but not to others.

This is in line with the concept of message-person congruence. Secondly, although the prime

which is presented is identical, depending on distinct personality, some people might have different

perceptions of the subliminal stimulus than others. Lastly, personality traits are typically associated

with inclination towards certain values or goal pursuance. Thus, it is expected that subliminal

priming which is aligned with individuals’ dispositional tendency or personality is much more

effective (Bustin et al., 2012; Yoshino et al., 2005).

This concept is used as the basis of the main research question in the present study. In order

to test whether different personality traits result in different effects of subliminal priming towards

product preference, we focused on one personality trait, which is sensation seeking, following the

study by Bustin et al.(2015).

Goal-relevant (1, 2, 3) (subliminal) prime

Ad’s persuasiveness (1)

Motive to pursue the goal (1, 2, 3)

Consumption behavior (2) (e.g. drink consumption)

Brand Choice (2)

Consumption intentions (3)

Prediction to

Personality traits (3)(i.e. sensation seeking)

Figure 2. Personality traits as moderators of the subliminal priming effect (Bustin et al., 2015)


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1.2.2 Sensation seeking Sensation seeking was first proposed as an addition to personality traits in the 1970s by

Zuckerman et al. Sensation seeking is “a trait defined by the seeking of varied, novel, complex,

and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal, and

financial risks for the sake of such experience” (Zuckerman, 1994, p. 27). Individuals who are high

in sensation seeking are characterized by their interest to engage in risky activities, craving for

adventure and new experience, and their need for novelty (Zuckerman, 1994).

In 1971, Zuckerman presented four factors that represent the dimensions of sensation

seeking, which are thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition (i.e. the needs

to loosening of one social inhibition such as alcohol consumption and sexual sensation), and

boredom susceptibility (i.e. the need for change and varieties). These four factors or subscales are

then used as a basis to develop a means to measure individuals’ level of sensation seeking – known

as Sensation Seeking Scale (“SSS”). The SSS went through quite number of revisions until the

latest version in 1978 known as SSS-V (i.e. SSS form five) consisting of 40-items of forced-choice

format (Zuckerman, 2007). In 2002, Hoyle, Stephenson, Palmgreen, Lorch and Donohew (2002)

developed a simpler version of the SSS-V named Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (“BSSS”) which

includes 8-item loadings with two items representing each of the four subscales of sensation

seeking. BSSS has been tested for reliability and validity in comparison with SSS-V and proven

to elicit the same result. Since then, BSSS has been widely used in studies surrounding sensation

seeking (Hoyle et al., 2002).

Referring to the previously explained effect of subliminal priming towards leisure

activities choices, it is hypothesized that :


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H1: Individuals who are subliminally primed with words associated with sensation seeking

will have higher tendency to choose high sensation leisure activities compared to individuals who

are not primed.

Motive to pursue the goal(controlled)

Goal-relevant subliminal prime• Imperative i.e. “Seek Adventure”• Static i.e. “Adventure” Preference for high SS leisure activities

• Skydiving• Hike-and-track

H1 (+)

Figure 3. Hypothesis 1 – Sensation seeking related subliminal prime positively influences the

preference for high sensation seeking activities.

Coming back to the relationship between personality traits and the effect of subliminal

priming, it is expected that individuals who scored high in sensation seeking will be more reactive

when primed with sensation seeking related words or concepts. Therefore, the second hypothesis

was formulated:

H2a: The effect of subliminal priming towards preferences for products ranked high in

sensation seeking is more pronounced for individuals who scored high in sensation seeking when

exposed to sensation seeking-related primes.

H2b: The effect of subliminal priming towards preferences for products ranked high in

sensation seeking is less pronounced for individuals scored low in sensation seeking when exposed

to sensation seeking-related primes.


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Goal-relevant subliminal prime• Prime• No Prime Preference for high SS leisure activities

• Skydiving• Hike-and-track

H1 (+)

Level of Sensation Seeking• High (above sample mean)

H2ab (+)

Figure 4. Hypothesis 2a and b – Individuals‘ level of sensation seeking influences the effect of subliminal priming towards product preference.

1.2.3 Priming content and subliminal priming

Once one potential predictor variable has been discussed, the second potential predictor

variable from the priming nature point of view will be tested, namely priming content. According

to the previous explanation of subliminal priming – subliminal priming will only work when

people do not realize the influencing power of the prime and do not have the ability to control the

influence (Strahan et al., 2002). A similar concept was discussed in the field of consumer

psychology called automatic correction against persuasion (Laran et al., 2011). This attribute,

known as a type of behavioural backlash, is a reversed persuasion effect when consumers

unconsciously resists or build some sort of “fence” towards a persuasion attempt when they

perceive marketing tactics as a source of persuasion. Consequently, “rather than behaving in a

manner implied by the tactic, consumers may automatically behave in contrary manner” (Laran et

al., 2011 p. 999) – hence the reversed behavioural effect. This phenomenon is referred to as reverse

priming effect (Laran et al., 2011).

Different priming effects of the exposure to a brand name versus a slogan were tested in

the study. Brands – just like a person’s name, are perceived by consumers as something that is

‘necessary to have’ and is seen as non-persuasive – hence allowing a normal priming effect.


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Slogans, on the other hand, are perceived as persuasive due to their nature to sell brands and their

constant reminder of brand attributes (e.g. Walmart’s slogan “Save Money. Live better”). As a

result, slogans generate reverse priming effect on the consumers. In the context of the present

study, the findings are particularly interesting since it also proves that the reverse priming effect

works in the case of subliminal exposure.

The above theory is underlying the third hypothesis; whether different priming content will

result in different subliminal priming effects. Instead of drawing a comparison between slogans

and brand names, the present study compares the use of imperative sentence and a static associative

word in a prime. By itself, imperative sentence is a form of direct persuasion. Based on the theory

of automatic correction against persuasion, the use of imperative sentences in a prime is expected

to result in a reverse priming effect as with slogans due to its persuasive nature. In contrary, a static

associative word will result in a normal priming effect. Hawkins (1970) had touched upon the use

of imperative sentence in subliminal priming, by comparing the use of the static word ‘Coke’ in a

prime to the imperative sentence ‘Drink Coke’. Although the study did not find a specific reverse

priming effect, it was proven that the use of an imperative sentence did not increase the influence

of the prime. In the present study, two content types of subliminal priming are compared; the

imperative sentence ‘Seek Adventure’ and the associative static word ‘Adventure’. Based on the

above points, it is hypothesized that:

H3a: The usage of imperative sentence ‘Seek Adventure’ in subliminal priming will result

in reverse priming effect (i.e. less or absence of priming effect), while the use of static associative

word ‘Adventure’ will result in the expected positive priming effect.


24


Presence of goal-relevant subliminal prime• Prime• No prime Preference for high

leisure activities• Skydiving • Hike-and-track

H1 (+/-)

Priming content• Imperative i.e. “Seek Adventure”

H3a (-)

Figure 5. Hypothesis 3a – The usage of imperative sentence in subliminal priming results in

reverse priming effect.

One other interesting argument that might support the third hypothesis is the possibility

that there is actually a relationship between sensation seekers and the tendency to avoid persuasion

tactics. Zuckerman (1971) mentioned that sensation seekers are generally more likely to “violate

the rule”, “rebel”, do not like being controlled and are likely to engage in illegal activities. It is fair

to assume that because sensation seekers do not like to be told what to do, they might have higher

“automatic correction against persuasion” and thus, the reverse priming effect will be much more

significant.

Based on the aforementioned reasons, it is hypothesized that:

H3b: The reverse priming effect from the use of imperative sentence is especially

pronounced for participants scored high in sensation seeking.


25


Goal-relevant subliminal prime• Prime• No Prime

Preference for high SS leisure activities• Skydiving• Hike-and-track

H1 (+)

Level of Sensation Seeking• High (above sample mean)

H2ab (+)

Priming content• Imperative sentence “Seek Adventure”

H3ab (-)

Figure 6. Hypothesis 3b – The reverse priming effect is especially pronounced for participants

scored high in sensation seeking.


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2 Data and Method

2.1 Participants The initial sample size of the experiments consisted of 312 participants, 154 were recruited

from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MT) – which was also used in the previous study done by Bustin

et al. (2015) and discussed to be comparable in terms of strength with other data collection method.

From this initial sample, 13 participants failed to watch the video included in the survey

(completion time of survey < 0.50 seconds) and hence were excluded from the analysis. This

created a final sample of 299 participants (52% female, 48% male, age ranges from 18 to 64), with

the majority age group of 25-34 years (53%). From this final sample, all variables were checked

for missing data using frequency test which resulted in 0% of missing data1.

2.2 Procedure The study was conducted using experiment Vignette study which was presented in the form

of an online survey consisting of instructions and set of questions. In the beginning of the survey,

participants were told that they will participate in a study about the relationship between people’s

personality and the choice of leisure activities. The survey was divided into three main parts. In

Part I, participants were asked about their general background information i.e. gender and age

group. In Part II, participants were asked to fill in a preliminary survey which determines

participants’ level of sensation seeking using Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (“BSSS”) following

the study by Bustin et al. (2015). In Part III, participants were instructed to imagine themselves

having won a package of leisure activity and need to choose one among different packages

presented in the online survey site which especially designed for the experiment.

1 Note that during the survey experiment, the ‘Force response’ function was activated for all questions in Qualtrics.


27

Before the participants were able to make their choice, they were instructed to watch a short

commercial video of a bank which was neither to be paused, nor replayed. The video was designed

to randomly subliminally prime one-third of the participants with a static word ‘Adventure’ (A),

one-third with imperative words ‘Seek Adventure’ (SA), and the rest with no prime (NP). The

prime was presented using the tachistoscopic technique by flashing a brief word in the middle of

the video at rapid speed (one time for approx. 20ms). In order to ensure that participants paid close

attention during the ‘commercial break’, they were informed that they could win a bonus prize if

they were able to guess the bank’s slogan (shown at the end of the commercial). Once participants

had been primed (or not) in the experimental and control condition, they were asked to state their

leisure activities choice by clicking one of the activities packages. The packages include four types

of leisure activities with different level of perceived sensation (from high to low): Skydiving, Hike-

and-Track, Weekend in a Countryside, and a Spa Treatment. Finally, in order to ensure the

subliminal nature of the prime, a validity check was conducted at the end of the experiment asking

participants whether they had seen something unusual in the video in an open-end response format.

2.3 Measures

2.3.1 Participants’ level of sensation seeking

Participants’ level of sensation seeking was determined using a well-validated Brief

Sensation Seeking Scale (Hoyle, 2002) consisting of 8 items rated on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly

disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Please refer to Annex 1 for the list of items contributing to the

scale. A preliminary test on the reliability and normality of distribution of BSSS was conducted

on the 8 items of the scale. BSSS was shown to have a relatively high reliability with Cronbach’s

Alpha=.787 and good correlations (score >.30) among all items, with no counter-indicative items


28

(confirmed by positive Cronbach’s Alpha for each item). A test for normality resulted in

substantial skewness across items (skewness between -.5 and 1.5, kurtosis -1.5 and 1.5). The large

number of sample (n=299) reduces the risk of underestimate of variance and substantive results in

the analysis – and thus should not be worried or corrected (Field, 2014).

For the hypothesis testing, the author was interested in the difference between people who

scored high in Sensation Seeking (“SS”) and people who scored low in SS. In order to divide the

participants into two groups, a new variable was created by computing the mean of the level of

sensation seeking as per BSSS. The means and the standard deviations of the studied quantitative

variable is presented in table 2. Based on the aforementioned mean, the sensation seeking

continuous variables were recoded into two nominal variable groups i.e. people that scored above

average level of SS (High SSµ>2.7) and people who scored lower than average of SS (Low SS

µ<2.7). From the total of 299 participants, 155 scored high in sensation seeking (54 percent female

with the majority age group of 25-34 years) while 144 scored low in sensation seeking. (50 percent

female with majority age group 25-34 years).

Table 1. Mean, Standard deviation and correlations of study (quantitative) variables

Variables Mean SD Cronbach’s Alpha

Sensation Seeking 2.797 0.801 (0.78)

2.3.2 Participants’ choice of leisure activities

In the survey, participants were able to select one out of four leisure activities which were

presented i.e. 1) Skydiving, 2) Hike-and-Track, 3) Weekend in a Countryside, and 4) a Spa

Treatment. The choice of activities were derived from the dimensions of sensation seeking

developed by Zuckerman (1971) with two out of four representing the high sensation seeking


29

choices i.e. ‘Skydiving’ and ‘Hike-and-Track’, and the other two representing the low sensation

seeking choices i.e. ‘Weekend in a Countryside’ and ‘Spa Treatment’. The reason to provide two

choices of activities for each sensation seeking levels was to minimize other decisional or disability

factors such as personal preferences or fear of height.

Skydiving signifies more extreme sports and hard adventures compared to hiking which

characterizes soft adventure and recreational sport (Williams & Soutar, 2005 ; Zuckerman, 2007)

(Rauter & Doupona Topič, 2011). One study showed that skydivers scored higher in sensation

seeking compared to other participants including hikers and river rafters (Hymbaugh & Garrett,

1974).

To revalidate the perceived level of the activities, a pretest with a simple ranking task was

conducted to 50 participants asking them to rank the activities’ levels of sensation seeking based

on perceived danger (i.e. ‘please rank the four activities from 1 being the most dangerous and 4

being the least dangerous’) and perceived uniqueness of experience (i.e. ‘please rank the four

activities from 1 being the most unique experience and 4 being the least unique experience’). The

pretest confirmed that ‘Skydiving’ perceived to be most dangerous and unique among other

activities, and therefore scored the highest in sensation seeking level. ‘Spa Treatment’ was

perceived to be the least dangerous and unique among other activities, hence, it is assumed to have

the lowest sensation seeking level. ‘Hike-and-Track’ ranked higher compared to ‘Weekend in a

Countryside’ in terms of perceived danger, but ranked lower when it comes to perceived

uniqueness. Thus, both activities are assumed to have moderate sensation seeking level.


30

2.4 Pre-test and manipulation

2.4.1 Subliminal check

Prior to the study, a preliminary test on the subliminal nature of the prime was conducted

to 37 participants using 0.30 ms length of prime time. Six participants confirmed that they have

seen a word flashing in the middle of the video with three able to recall the exact word (‘Adventure’

or ‘Seek Adventure’). Following the preliminary study, the prime duration was reduced to 0.20

ms. At the end of the main study, eight individuals out of 299 participants confirmed to have seen

a word or screen flashing in the video, whereby four were able to read the word ‘Seek Adventure’

or ‘Adventure’.

2.4.2 Accessibility, applicability and motivation

Based on the notion that the accessibility and the applicability of the prime as well as the

individuals’ motivation are all necessary for priming to work (Strahan et al., 2002), certain

conditions were set in the present study. In order to ensure that participants have certain

motivations to pursue the goal of choosing one of the leisure activities, participants were instructed

in the beginning of the study to imagine themselves as having won a leisure package and had to

choose one out of four options. By doing so, the present study took into account the role of goal-

relevancy (i.e. choosing a prize) and motive to pursue the goal (i.e. willingness to go on a leisure

activity) subsequent to the previous study by Strahan et al. (2002). As for the accessibility and the

applicability of the choices, the four leisure packages were stated to be of equal value and include

the same standard accommodation and transport (i.e. two-night-stay and three-course meal). The

packages were mentioned to be valid for a period of ten months and are located in the area within

500 km from the participants’ residence. In this way, we try to make the choices as plausible and

flexible as possible.


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2.5 Results

2.5.1 Main effect of subliminal priming towards product choices

The preliminary part of the study which is also presented in the first hypothesis is to test

whether an exposure to subliminal priming influences participants’ leisure activities choices.

H1: Individuals who are subliminally primed with words associated with sensation seeking

will have higher tendency to choose high sensation leisure activities compared to individuals who

are not primed.

To test the first hypothesis, a likelihood ratio statitic analysis was conducted using a

multinomial logistic regression. Likelihood ratio statistic on the use of both primes ‘Seek

Adventure’ and ‘Adventure’ (both recoded into a new variable called ‘Prime’) was compared to

no exposure to prime (variable named ‘No Prime’), showing a significant association between the

presence of prime and participants’ choice of leisure activities, with ᵪ2 (1) = 8.13, p (.043) < .005.

Further calculation of the odds ratio showed that for participants who were primed by either

‘Seek Adventure’ and ‘Adventure’ the odds of choosing high leisure activities were 0.694 higher

than if they were not primed. This result supported the first hypothesis, whereby the participants

who are subliminally primed with words associated with sensation seeking have a higher tendency

to choose products or services that are in line with the concept of sensation seeking compared to

participants who are not primed.

In order to have a more specific analysis on the priming effect, a frequency table analysis

was conducted which look into each of the leisure activities choices. Based on the pretest which

determined the sensation level of different activities, it is expected that people who were primed


32

with sensation seeking concept will have a higher tendency to choose high sensation leisure

activities.

Table 2. Contingency Table – Primed individuals vs. Non Primed individuals

Rank Leisure activities Count % Primed individuals 1 Weekend in countryside 79 39% 2 Hike-and-Track 47 23% 3 Spa 43 21% 4 Skydiving 32 16% Total 201 100% Rank Leisure activities Count % 1 Hike-and-Track 37 38% Non Primed Individuals 2 Weekend in a countryside 29 30% 3 Spa 22 22% 4 Skydiving 10 10% Total 98 100%

a. Total number of participants 299 b. Assumptions for log-linear analysis are met with no expected counts less than 1 and no more than 20% of

the total less than 5.

Result confirmed the first hypothesis showing that there is a significant – and correspondingly

the highest increase of percentage for people choosing ‘Skydiving’ in the primed group compared

to non-primed group (56%). The result also confirmed the hypothesis in the way that the priming

effect is not seen in lower sensation seeking leisure activities i.e. ‘Spa’ as it is shown a decrease

of five percent of people choosing ‘Spa’ within the primed group compared to the non-primed

group.

However, results on the moderate level sensation seeking activities showed some small

unexpected results. ‘Weekend in a Countryside’ indeed showed a significant increase of 33 percent

of people choosing the activity in the primed condition compared to the non-primed condition.

Conversely, in the Hike-and-Track activity choice, there is a distinct decrease of 38 percent of

people in the primed condition compared to the non-primed condition. This result is contradicting


33

with the pretest result where people ranked Hike-and-Track as the second highest leisure activities.

This results suggest that the priming effect is significantly apparent in the highest and the lowest

of sensation seeking level for the activities, but does not seem to be supported in the case of

moderate level of sensation seeking activities.

2.5.2 Different effects of subliminal priming based on individuals’ level of sensation seeking

The second hypothesis which tests if there are different effects of subliminal priming

between individuals who scored high and low in sensation seeking are presented by the following

two sub-hypothesis:

H2a: The effect of subliminal priming towards preferences for products ranked high in

sensation seeking is more pronounced for individuals who scored high in sensation seeking when

exposed to sensation seeking-related prime.

H2b: The effect of subliminal priming towards preferences for products ranked high in

sensation seeking is less pronounced for individuals scored low in sensation seeking when exposed

to sensation seeking-related prime.

Before testing the hypothesis, a log-linear analysis on the general effect of participants’

sensation seeking level on product preference was conducted to see whether it is plausible for

sensation seeking level to moderates the subliminal priming effect in the first place. The predictor

variable used in the analysis was individual average score in sensation seeking with outcome

variable leisure activities choices. The analysis revealed a highly significant association between

participants’ level of SS and the choice of leisure activities ᵪ2 (1) = 41.596, p (.000) < .001.

According to the odds ratio, participants who scored high in sensation seeking the odds of choosing


34

high leisure activities were 0.225 higher than if they are low in sensation seeking (from hereafter

referred to as ‘SS’ in the Result section). This confirmed the assumption that by itself participants’

level in sensation seeking affects their product preferences.

When the plausibility of the assumption is confirmed, the second hypothesis was tested

using cross-tabs analysis, presenting two groups of participants’ average level of sensation seeking

(High SS – M>2.797, Low SS – M<2.797) and the presence of prime (‘Primed’ and ‘Not Primed’)

as two predictor variables, and outcome variable leisure activities choices (presented in Table 3).

Table 3. Contingency Table

Leisure Activities (LA) Spa Weekend in

a countryside

Hike-and-Track

SkyDiving Total

High SS Primed Count 31 52 18 7 201

% within LeisChoice 69% 77% 56% 64% 100%

Not primed

Count 14 15 14 4 98

% within LeisChoice 31% 22% 44% 36% 100%

Low SS Primed Count 12 27 29 25 93

% within LeisChoice 60% 65.9% 55.8% 80.6% 100% Not

primed Count 8 14 23 6 51

% within LeisChoice 40% 34.1% 44.2% 19.4% 144 Total Count 65 108 84 42 299 % within LeisChoice 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

a. Total number of participants 299 b. Assumptions for log-linear analysis are met with no expected counts less than 1 and no more than 20% of

the total less than 5. An analysis on the parameter estimates showed that the main effect of the present of

Priming is the most important effect of the model (z=4.832 with 95% confidence interval),

followed by the interaction between Priming x Leisure choice (z=-2.072) and SS category x

Leisure choice (z=-1.945). The likelihood ratio of this model was significant ᵪ2 (7)=39.165,

p<0.001. On the other hand, the interaction between the two independent variables Priming x SS


35

category was not significant for the model (p>0.05). This is in line with the K-way effect analysis

which shows that removing the two-way interaction will affect the model (p<0.01) but not

significant in case of removing the three-way interaction (p>0.05).

In summary, as also shown in the contingency table, majority of participants with High SS

chose ‘Weekend in a Countryside’ (43%) with 77 percent of them being primed with sensation

seeking concept. Moreover, 20.6 percent of the people scored high in SS chose ‘Hike-and-Track’

with 56 percent of them being primed, and 7.1 percent chose to go ‘Skydiving’ with 64 percent

being primed. Participants with low SS were less likely to choose ‘Weekend in countryside

(28.5%) and the majority chose Hike-and-Track (36%) with 65.9 percent and 55.8 percent of them

having been primed with goal-relevant prime, respectively.

Across three leisure activities (Spa, Hike-and-Track, and Weekend in a Countryside),

participants who scored low in SS had lower percentage of being effectively primed with goal

relevant primes. Only in SkyDiving (21.5%), participants who scored low in SS shown a higher

score in terms of being effectively primed with goal relevance prime with 80.6% of the participants

are primed.

Based on the above analysis, the result confirmed the second hypothesis, whereby the

leisure choice of high SS individuals seems to be more influenced by the present of goal relevance

prime compared to low SS individuals. The two sub-hypothesis were confirmed; The effect of

subliminal priming towards product preference is more pronounced for individuals who scored

high SS when exposed to SS-related prime, and less pronounced for individuals scored low in SS.

The study also highlights an interesting point where in the case for High SS individuals the

influence of priming seems to work across all leisure activities, the presence of the prime only


36

seems to influence the low SS individuals’ choice on highest scored sensational activity i.e.

Skydiving.

Although it is confirmed that both sensation seeking and subliminal priming affects

individuals’ leisure activities choices, it is important to note that the above results do not say

anything about the direction of the relationship – whether it is a positive or negative nor the

differences between the type of activities. More importantly, it does not reveal the nature of the

interaction, whether it is a moderating effect or merely two independent effect of two predictor

variables (Figures 7 and 8). Henceforth, a cross-tabs analysis and moderating analysis were

performed.


Presence of goal-relevant subliminal prime• Imperative sentence “Seek Adventure”• Associative word “Adventure”• No prime

Preference for leisure activities• Skydiving (High)• Hike-and-track (High)• Weekend in a countryside • Spa treatment

Personality traits i.e. level of Sensation Seeking• High (above sample mean)• Low (below sample mean)

H2a,b

Figure 7. Expected moderating effect of sensation seeking level on subliminal priming effect





H2a,b

Figure 8. Two possible independent effects of two predictor variables.


37

Cross-tab analysis was conducted comparing the priming effect between the high and low SS

participants within the priming condition (Table 4).

Table 4. Contingency Table – Primed individuals High SS vs. Low SS

Primed individuals

Preference for activities Count %

1 Weekend in countryside 52 48% High SS 2 Spa 31 29% 3 Hike and track 18 17% 4 Skydiving 7 6%

Total 108 100% 1 Hike and track 29 31% Low SS 2 Weekend in a countryside 27 29% 3 Skydiving 25 27% 4 Spa 12 13%

Total 93 100% a. Total number of participants 299 b. Assumptions for log-linear analysis are met with no expected counts less than 1 and no more than 20% of


The cross-tab analysis revealed an interesting result, showing a significant higher priming

effect for high SS participants in lower SS activities. Weekend in a countryside and Spa have 66

percent and 122 percent higher priming effects among the high SS participants, respectively, when

compared to low SS participants. In addition, lower priming effects were observed in higher

sensation seeking activities (-76%) Skydiving and Hike-and-Track (-47%) among high SS

participants when compared to low SS participants.

Based on the log-likelihood measure, the chi-square test showed a difference in

unexplained variance from 377.39 to 321.23 = 56.16 – this change is significant (p <.05) which

means that the model explains a significant amount of the original variability – meaning that both

predictor variables i.e. SS level and priming have significant main effect to leisure activities


38

choices (SS level ᵪ2 (1) = 47.68, p (.000) < .005, priming content ᵪ2 (1) = 13.171, p (.040) <

.005). However, the analysis showed that there is no effect of the interaction between the two

predictor variables – priming content and SS level – on leisure activities, ᵪ2 (1) = 11.104, p (.52)

>.005.

Table 5. Moderation analysis using hierarchical regression

R R2 R2 change B SE β t Step 1 .358 .128 .128** SS level .435 .066 .359** 6.568 Prime Presence .033 .112 .016 .293 Step 2 .360 .129 .001 SS Level .376 .121 .310* 3.1 Prime Presence .029 .113 .014 .259 Inter SS Level Prime Presence

.084 .145 .058 .579

*P <0.05 , ** p <0.01

Moreover, hierarchical multiple regression was performed to investigate the moderating

effect of SS level to the effect of priming towards choices of leisure activities. The analysis was

done by transforming categorical variables (i.e. presence of the prime) to dummy variables and

centering the potential moderator (i.e. SS level). In the first step of hierarchical multiple regression,

two independent variables were entered, namely SS Level and Prime presence (i.e. whether

individual was primed or not). This model was statistically significant F (2, 296) = 21.79; p <.001

and explained 12.8% of variance choices of leisure activities. However, after the entry of the

interaction between SS Level and Prime Presence at step 2, the total variance explained by the


39

model is not significant. In the second model, only SS Level as independent variable was

statistically significant (β=.310, p < 0.05).

These results showed that prime presence has no significant effect after controlling for SS

level, moderator and interaction. On the other hand, when a regression analysis was done with

only each independent variables separetely i.e. Prime Presence with leisure activities, or SS Level

with leisure activities, without taking into account other factors and zoom in on independent

effects, the effect showed to be significant.

In summary, although these results supported the second hypothesis which confirmed that

there is indeed different effects of subliminal priming between high SS and low SS participants,

there is no moderating effect or any interaction between the two predictor variables (Figure 7b is

confirmed).

2.5.3 Possible reverse priming effect resulting from the use of imperative sentence

Lastly, the third hypothesis is tested to determine whether or not the use of imperative

sentence will result in reverse priming effect, especially for participants who scored high in

sensation seeking. The following sub-hypotheses are tested:

H3a: The usage of imperative sentence ‘Seek Adventure’ in subliminal priming will result

in reverse priming effect (i.e. less or absence of priming effect), while the use of static associative

word ‘Adventure’ will result in the expected positive priming effect.

H3b: The reverse priming effect from the use of imperative sentence is especially

pronounced for participants scored high in sensation seeking.


40

The results showed that there was a significant association between priming content and

individual’s choice of leisure activities ᵪ2 (1) = 9.833, p (.024) < .005. Based on the odds ratio,

the individuals who were primed by ‘Adventure’ the odds of choosing high leisure activities were

1.586 higher than if they were primed with ‘Seek Adventure’. Another test was conducted by

creating an additional variable “Use of imperative sentence”, in which a log-linear analysis

revalidated the significance of priming content as predictive variable (ᵪ2 (1) = 14.463, p (.020) <

.005), showing that individuals who were primed by ‘Adventure’, the odds of choosing high leisure

activities were 1.68 higher than if they were primed with ‘Seek Adventure’. The result confirmed

hypothesis 3a, whereby in general the use of imperative sentence in priming lead to a lower

priming effect to the choices of higher leisure activities.

Furthermore, a cross-tabs analysis was conducted to zoom in on the differences of the effect among

different leisure activities.

Table 6. Contingency Table – Primed individuals Seek Adventure vs. Adventure

Primed individuals

Preference for activities Count %

1 Weekend in country side 49 48% Seek Adventure 2 Hike and track 21 20% 3 Spa 19 18% 4 Skydiving 14 14%

Total 103 100% 1 Weekend in a country side 30 31% Adventure 2 Hike and track 26 27% 3 Spa 24 24% 4 Skydiving 18 18%

Total 98 100% a. Total number of participants 201 b. Assumptions for log-linear analysis are met with no expected counts less than 1 and no more than 20% of



41

When comparing the differences in percentage, a reverse priming effect is seen among

three leisure activities namely ‘Skydiving’ and ‘Spa’ – which are the highest and lowest SS leisure

activities, correspondingly. However, for moderate SS leisure activities (i.e. ‘Weekend in a

Countryside’ and ‘Hike-and-Track’), the results showed no pattern of reverse priming effect. In

fact, for ‘Weekend in a Countryside’, prime ‘Seek Adventure’ seems to provide a positive priming

effect compared to ‘Adventure’. The result provides an additional point to the current confirmed

hypothesis 3a, whereby the use of imperative sentence in priming lead to a lower priming effect to

the choices of highest and lowest SS leisure activities, while no consistent effect seen among

moderate SS activities.

Further analysis was conducted to compare whether there is a difference in the role of

imperative sentence between high SS participants versus low SS participants by separating the

sample from the initial data set. However, the chi-square analysis on the two separate data sets i.e.

High SS (M > 2.797) vs Low SS (M<2.797) revealed no significant effects between priming

content with leisure activities choices. This finding followed the moderation analysis which was

conducted previously in relation to SS level - priming content has no significant effect when

controlling for SS Level. On the other hand, when analysis is done on the complete sample, without

zooming into different level of sensation seeking, it is resulted in significant effect.


42





H2a,b

Priming content• Imperative i.e. “Seek Adventure” H3ab

Figure 9. Results of the present study – independent effects of individuals’ level of sensation

seeking and priming content on leisure activities choices.


43

3 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Following the experiment, results suggest that both subliminal priming and individuals’ level

of personality traits – more specifically the level of sensation seeking – affect individuals’ leisure

activities choices. In addition, it is confirmed that the subliminal priming effect varies based on

individuals’ level of personality traits.

3.1 Hypothesis 1 The test of hypothesis 1 found a significant association between the presence of the prime

and individuals’ choice of leisure activities. In general, participants who were primed with word

or sentence related to the concept of sensation seeking have higher probability to choose high

sensation seeking activities compared to participants who were not primed. The strongest effect

was seen in the highest sensation seeking activity (i.e. Skydiving) and almost no priming effect

was seen in lower sensation seeking activity (i.e. Spa). The result revealed additional finding which

was not discovered in previous studies in which the priming effect on individuals’ choice of leisure

activities does not seem to present in the case of moderate level sensation seeking activities (Hike-

and-Track and Weekend in a Countryside). This could be due to the reason that moderate level of

sensation seeking activities are susceptible to individuals’ perception. This was proven in the

pretest which was conducted to determine the level of sensation seeking amongst the four

activities. While Skydiving and Spa remain at their constant ranks (the first and the last,

respectively), Hike-and-Track and Weekend in a Countryside were ranked interchangeably

(second and third place) when assessed through different measures (i.e. perceived danger,

perceived uniqueness, word association test). Nevertheless, this finding succesfully confirms the

result of previous studies on the effect of subliminal priming on consumer decisions e.g. product

and service choices.


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3.2 Hypothesis 2

The test of hypothesis 2 revealed that the leisure choice of high sensation seeking individuals

seem to be more influenced by the presence of prime compared to low sensation seeking

individuals. There are two possible reasons that might cause the effect; First, it is assumed to be

resulting from the use of the sensation seeking related primes which confirmed the ‘message-

person congruence’. Depending on individuals’ personality traits, people might have higher

sensitivity towards subliminal persuasion which is in line with their personality. Second, sensation

seeking is associated with perceptual differences in the way people process subliminal priming.

Bustin et al. (2015) suggested that people who scored high in sensation seeking have a stronger

reaction to any subliminal advertisement in general regardless of the product or brands as

compared to people scored low in sensation seeking.

The analysis also revealed that while for high sensation seeking individuals the influence

of subliminal priming showed to work across all leisure activities, the effect was only present in

the highest sensation seeking activities among low sensation seeking participants. The analysis

also revealed an interesting result that in lower sensation seeking activities choices (i.e. ‘Weekend

in a countryside’ and ‘Spa’) a stronger priming effect was seen among the high sensation seeking

individuals compared to lower sensation seeking individuals. On the contrary, in higher sensation

seeking activities (i.e. Hike-and-Track and Skydiving) a stronger priming effect was seen among

the low sensation seeking individuals. This finding might confirm the role of the priming itself

towards different individuals. One possible explanation might be that by nature, high sensation

seeking individuals are expected to choose high sensation seeking activities – thus, they do not

need much of a ‘push’ from the priming effect when choosing for high sensation seeking activities.

While in the case of low sensation seeking individuals – who are expected to choose low sensation


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seeking activities – the need for an extra ‘push’ is higher when they ended up choosing high

sensation seeking activities. Therefore, the effect of priming is higher in this group of individuals.

Although the study found that there are differences in the result among the two types of the

participants, the analysis did not reveal any specific moderating effect of individuals’ level of

sensation seeking on the subliminal priming effect. There are merely separate independent effects

of both individuals’ level of sensation seeking and priming presence towards individuals’ leisure

activities choices. A potential explanation could be that personality traits by itself is already a

strong direct predictive variable for leisure activities choices (Pomfret, 2006; Zuckerman, 1983)

which might result in higher chance for confounding. Different with the study by Bustin et al.

(2015), it was revealed that there is no relationship between individuals scored high in sensation

seeking and the intention to drink Red Bull, which eliminated the mere influencing power of

sensation seeking to purchase or consumption intention. This makes the external validity of the

effect of the subliminal priming much stronger in Bustin et al.‘s (2015) study and weaker in the

present study.

3.3 Hypothesis 3 Lastly, the testing of hypothesis 3 found that in general the use of imperative sentence in

priming lead to a lower priming effect compared to the use of static associative word. This finding

supported the finding of Hawkins (1970) and Laran et al. (2011) where the use of imperative

sentence resulted in people building a ‘shield’ towards persuasion tactic and resulted in lower

priming effect.

In addition, it was revealed that the reverse priming effect was specifically seen among the

highest and lowest leisure activities (i.e. Skydiving and Spa) and was not consistent among

medium sensation seeking leisure activities (i.e. Hike-and-Track and Weekend in a Countryside).


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This might also be due to the previously explained susceptibility of moderate level sensation

seeking activities, which is vulnerable to subjective perceptions. When comparing the results

between individuals scored high and low in sensation seeking, the study did not find any significant

difference of the priming effect nor any moderating effect.

3.4 General discussion and conclusion All in all, the present study was able to verify the effect of subliminal priming towards

another potential outcome variable namely product preference. It also takes into account the

personal dispositional factors as per the theoretical framework by Bustin et al. (2015) in the

empirical examination of the effectiveness of subliminal priming. Expanding from the existing

literature in subliminal priming (Bustin et al., 2015; Karremans et al., 2006; Strahan et al., 2002),

this study was able to explore the application of the subliminal priming effect beyond basic needs

such as thirst, to different types of needs and product offerings, namely, self-actualization needs

and leisure activities choices. Last but not least, primer content as an additional predictor variable

was introduced to the analysis, which revalidated the study by Laran et al. (2011)

Although the independent effects of both subliminal priming and personality traits are

found to be significant, the present study failed to revalidate the theory by Bustin et al.(2015) as

it does not find any moderating effect of personality traits on the effectiveness of subliminal

priming. A comparison to methods used in previous studies might provide some additional

potential explanations to the one explained above as well as suggestions for future research. One

additional potential explanation could be that the presentation of four different leisure activities

choices as outcome variable provides enough rooms for different interpretation, subjective

preferences and individuals’ perceptions. In the study by Bustin et al. (2015) participants were

only presented with one choice of drink (i.e. Red Bull). Instead of choosing between product


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choices, the author measure the participants’ intention to drink Red Bull. By doing that, the author

controlled participants’ subjective perception of high sensation seeking drink, and thus enabled a

relatively isolated measure of the outcome variable (i.e. consumption or behavioural intention).

Based on the aforementioned potential explanations, it will be interesting for future studies to

explore the role of personality traits on the effect of subliminal priming to leisure activities choices

by limiting the number of choices to one or two packages to reduce the risk of spreaded results. In

addition, instead of using product choices, it is worth looking to measure individual’s intention to

increase the external validity and precision of the priming effect.

Secondly, although the majority of participants in the pretest determining the level of

sensation seeking among the activities resulted in more or less a collective agreement, there are so

many things that influence individuals’ choice of leisure activities which were not taking into

account in the present study – especially since it is conducted in an open environment. The present

study did provide a significant addition to the research on subliminal priming by applying

subliminal advertising in a less controlled environment – an application which stated to be lacking

in the research of subliminal advertising which were mostly conducted in a lab (Pratkanis &

Greenwald, 1988; Verwijmeren et al., 2010). Nonetheless, this online environment also delivered

the risk of participants being distracted. Even though the present study used the manipulation check

to ensure the participants to pay close attention to the video consisting (or not consisting) the prime,

it will not be as accurate as if the study was conducted in a controlled setting. Likewise, online

environment also means that participants used different tools (i.e. computers, operating systems,

internet platforms) and conduct the survey in different environmental surroundings that might

influence the sensitivity towards the prime or the choice of leisure activities itself. It is therefore


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might be interesting for future studies to replicate the present study and apply it in a isolated

environment (i.e. laboratory) which might ease the disentanglement of the priming effect.

Lastly, the use of commercial video and music in the priming technique in this study might

also influence the participants’ mood and, eventually, leisure activities choices. Although the

author selected the video and the music which were as neutral as possible, both elements might be

perceived differently by participants and potentially acted as unintended ‘subliminal prime’ by

themselves. And so, further research should try to revalidate the present study by applying different

types of priming method or exercise. One example could be by using the visual detection task –

which testing individuals’ accuracy in detecting small deviances – as used in the preceding studies

(Bustin et al., 2015; Karremans et al., 2006).

In relation to further implications of the application of subliminal priming in a marketing

context, despite the on-going debates on ethics and restrictions surrounding subliminal marketing,

there are several points for which marketers might benefit from this study. First, the verification

of the positive effect of subliminal priming in influencing consumers’ product preferences.

Depending on the applicability per region in terms of regulations, subliminal priming might be

utilized as an effective marketing tool. Second, marketers should be aware of the different effect

of subliminal priming across different individuals. Depending on the target consumers, certain

type of subliminal priming might be more effective for certain kind of people compared to others.

Last but not least, it is important for marketers to be aware of the reverse priming effect caused by

the use of imperative sentence. Instead of becoming an effective marketing tool, priming

consumers with the risky type of persuasion might counter attack and result in loosing consumers.

All in all, this study provides another reason to believe that what consumers sometimes

think as their ‘gut feeling’ or merely instict, might be something that is set up on purpose to control


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their behavior. On a side note, subliminal priming can be used for a good cause. Imagine if people

are primed with positive words such as ‘Love’, ‘Peace’, or ‘Care’. As long as they have the

motivation to make the world a better place, the priming effect might work.


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APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Items and descriptive statistics for BSSS

(Hoyle et al., 2002)


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Appendix 2. Online survey experiment


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Appendix 3. Examples of subliminal seduction

(Sam Greenspan, 2010)




PRIMING THE DAREDEVILS - Universiteit van Amsterdam

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