See the above picture; I think that most of us who are taking the psychology classes will know how absurd the subliminal self-help tapes are. We are the lucky one because if we were to search the internet for subliminal self-help tapes, we will notice how many people still believe in this nonsense. On the other hand, as long as it brings benefits to us, it wouldn't matter, right? Wrong!
We only think that subliminal self-help tapes bring benefit to us because of the illusory placebo effect. We have learned from the previous chapters that placebo effect is an improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement, so, this means that illusory placebo effect is an illusion of placebo effect.
Let say that I want to be more decisive so I bought one of the self-help tapes above, after a week, I will probably be able to decide better but is it really the works of the subliminal self-help tape or is it because I decided to convince myself that I will be more decisive after listening to the tape? Of course, it is because I have the expectation of being more decisive only after I listen to the tape. So, in conclusion buying subliminal self-help tapes is a waste of money and a waste of time, it is like we are trying to convince ourselves that we can change ourselves unconsciously by just listening or looking.
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