Abstract
The present experiment investigated the effects of subliminal psychodynamic stimuli on anxiety as measured by heart rate. Following an anxiety-inducing task, male and female subjects were tachistoscopically shown, at their subjective thresholds, one of five subliminal stimuli, MOMMY AND I ARE ONE, DADDY AND I ARE ONE (symbiotic messages). MOMMY HAS LEFT ME (abandonment message), I AM HAPPY AND CALM (positively toned but nonsymbiotic phrase), or MYMMO NAD I REA ENO (control stimulus). It was hypothesized that men would exhibit a greater decrease in heart rate after exposure to the MOMMY stimulus than the control message. No definitive predictions were made for women. The abandonment phrase was expected to increase heart rate. A positively toned message was included to assess whether its effects would be comparable to those hypothesized for the MOMMY message. The results yielded no significant effects for stimulus or gender and so provided no support for the hypotheses.
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