Study: Consumers react more to negative statements

The study, by a team of researchers at University College London - Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, found that subliminal messages or images were reacted to more when they were negative than positive.

During the study 50 participants were shown a series of words, visible for only a fraction of a second, via a computer monitor. The words were either positive (for example 'flower' or 'peace'), negative (for example 'murder' or 'peace') or neutral (for example 'kettle' or 'ear'). Participants were asked, after seeing the words, to say if the word or neutral, positive or negative. The researchers found that consumers responded more accurately when asked about the negative terms than the neutral or positive terms.

"There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words. We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words," said Professor Nilli Lavie, the leader of the study. "'Kill your speed' should be more noticeable than 'Slow down'. More controversially, highlighting a competitor's negative qualities may work on a subliminal level much more effectively than shouting about your own selling points."

Although it might seem to some that creating a negative campaign based on the short-comings of competitor products would create more traffic and revenue, the opposite is most likely true. First, consumers will only stand so much negative advertising, and subliminal advertising practices are against the law in most countries. Also, the retaliation of those competitors would likely be brutal to any brand image.

Tags: advertising, negative advertising, online advertising, subliminal advertising, University College London