Unconscious Influences on Decision Making a Critical Review

Introduction

Human beings have the potential to perceive all the external stimuli that surround them. Stimuli are candy at different levels: some past conscious perceptual experience, i.e., those we are normally enlightened of, and others by unconscious perceptual feel, which are received without usa having the notion that they are influencing our behavior. This second type of stimulus, namely, subliminal simulation, is what we consider in this paper. The subliminal presentation of the stimuli is based on ensuring that the stimulus is registered by the appropriate sensory system and activates its corresponding representation, but with minimal activation then that the stimulus does not reach consciousness (Smith and McCulloch, 2012).

Demonstrating the existence of unconscious perceptual processes through which stimuli are perceived when subjects are not aware of them has been in the minds of scientists and researchers for decades, generating much controversy. The master areas of inquiry throughout the 20th century have revolved around the acceptability of the method used to institute the absence of conscious perception and the method to evaluate the unconscious perception of the stimulus (Overgaard and Timmermans, 2010; Smith and McCulloch, 2012). With the ascent of enquiry in neurology (Neumann and Klotz, 1994; Dehaene et al., 1998; Eimer and Schlaghecken, 1998; Abrams and Greenwald, 2000; Damian, 2001; Abrams et al., 2002; Kunde et al., 2003; Forster, 2004) and neuroscience in the 21st century (Dehaene et al., 2001; Naccache and Dehaene, 2001a, b; Devlin et al., 2004; Nakamura et al., 2005) scientists accept converged on the existence of unconscious perceptual processes.

Several paradigms have been used in enquiry on unconscious perceptual processing, including binocular rivalry (Crick and Koch, 2003; Baars, 2005; Mudrik et al., 2010) inattention (Raymond et al., 1992; Shapiro et al., 1997; Commuter and Vuilleumier, 2001; Martens et al., 2002; Rusconi et al., 2006) semantic priming (Kouider et al., 2007; Bruno et al., 2020) and visual masking, which is the about usually used arroyo. This image (Marcel, 1983) consists of presenting ii stimuli in different means that preclude the offset stimulus from existence seen. Several strategies are used to prevent the first stimulus from existence perceived: varying the intensity of the second stimulus against the starting time one past presenting both at the same fourth dimension or presenting the second stimulus immediately afterwards the start one, ensuring that the second stimulus does not permit the first 1 to be discerned (van Gaal et al., 2010).

From its get-go use in 1884 by Pierce and Jastrow (1884) in a forced choice discrimination task between two possibilities to the present day through the results of unconscious perceptual processing (Dell'Acqua and Grainger, 1999; Kunde et al., 2005; van Opstal et al., 2005a, b) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Brown and Hagoort, 1993; Lleras and Enns, 2004; Verleger et al., 2004; Goodman et al., 2017; Hakkak et al., 2019) and intracranial registers (Cohen et al., 2000; Henson, 2003) this prototype ensures that a stimulus reaches the consciousness, fulfilling two conditions proposed by Kouider and Dehaene (2007). The first condition is that the input stimulus has plenty strength to cross the global threshold, which can exist avoided by degradation of the stimulus or competition with other stimuli, i.eastward., visual masking. The second is that the stimulus must receive down distension past distant neurons, which can exist avoided by attracting those neurons to another stimulus or task. In this enquiry, the paradigm that has been used is that of visual masking with dissimilar intensity.

Selective attention tin also operate dynamically in fourth dimension [Coull and Nobre (1998) as cited in Pichon et al. (2016)]. Behavioral studies take researched the result of temporal attending on the perception of visual stimuli flashed chop-chop in a continuous sequence or briefly presented (Pichon et al., 2016).

Recently, neuropsychologists like Pessiglione (Merikle, 1988; Prévost et al., 2010; Pessiglione et al., 2015; Lopez-Persem et al., 2016) have shown that cases of making sound decisions based on intuition rather than conscious reasoning are more common than previously thought. In fact, they have shown that sound intuitive decision-making basically depends on the association of the subliminal messages of a given situation with the limbic encephalon structures formed. Krishnan and Trappey (1999) and Theus (1994) reviewed enquiry on subliminal advertising, without considering the role of gender and personality in unconscious processes. Pratkanis and Greenwald (1988) replicated subliminal effects and new models of unconscious processes and abandoned some controversial motivational assumptions of by perspectives. Rosen and Singh (1992) investigated the issue of subliminal sexual activity and death embeds on attention to advertising, change in attitude, behavioral intention, and day-after recall of ad for 2 products. No significant effects were indicated in the report at whatever level.

Synodinos (1988) claimed that stimuli as well weak to be detected tin can impact behavior in powerful ways, finding that when an objective definition was adopted and proper psychophysical methods were followed, in that location is no support for the effectiveness of undetectable stimuli. An approach was adopted, which used phenomenal awareness every bit a footing for distinguishing betwixt conscious and unconscious perceptual processes. Trappey (1996) conducted a meta-analysis to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of subliminal advertising in influencing the consumer'southward conclusion between alternatives. Nevertheless, neither gender nor personality was considered.

Pessiglione et al. (2015) prepare visual cues with abstract symbols to evaluate visual perception using "subconscious" signals in the abstractions and then ask the participants whether they perceived whatsoever difference. If the subjects could not correctly identify the differences, like the introduction of an image of a face (Aguado et al., 2014) then neither could they consciously depict associations betwixt a betoken and a result. A second set of experiments was performed using subliminal workout using the same procedure involving abstract symbols simply relating the results to budgetary rewards. The results showed that the rewards and the punishments of subliminal signals guided responses and decisions, including those conditional on abstruse signals that the subjects could non consciously perceive. Images obtained through a fMRI scan showed the specific brain circuits related to subliminal conditioning (Pichon et al., 2016). The subliminal fMRI findings are consistent with a view that the automatic activation of melancholia processes guides evolutionarily advantageous controlling mechanisms (Panksepp, 2011 equally cited in Brooks and Stein, 2014). It tin can be concluded that the brain does non need to consciously know contextual information to learn the value of this information and make the necessary connections to undertake positive decisions (van Gaal et al., 2010).

To examine personality traits, Eysenck (1994) is followed, which proposed that the extraversion–introversion dimension (extraversion – positive affectivity marked past pronounced date with the external globe and characterized by high sociability, talkativeness, free energy, and assertiveness) is caused past variability in cortical arousal. At low environmental arousal potential, extraverts' cognitive performance would be lower than that of introverts (Eysenck, 1994 every bit cited in Mitchell and Kumari, 2016). Also that, Eysenck's model treats neuroticism and psychoticism dimensions every bit independent of extraversion. The model proposes that the neuroticism stability dimension (neuroticism – negative affectivity marked by emotional instability and depression tolerance for stress or aversive stimuli and characterized by feet, fright, moodiness, worry, green-eyed, frustration, jealousy, and loneliness) is explained by differences in the level of activity primarily in the limbic system. A relationship among unconscious processes, personality traits, and controlling tin can exist found in many studies (Nga and Yien, 2013; Abadie and Waroquier, 2019; Dell'Orco et al., 2019; Myrica, 2019).

In this study, nosotros also consider whether unconscious perceptual processing influences controlling. We specifically explore the influence of personality traits that are related to unconscious processing, namely, the degree of neuroticism, extroversion, and introversion too equally the gender of the individual.

Study Pattern and Methodology

In this study, the post-obit independent variables were considered: personality (degree of neuroticism, extroversion–introversion), subliminal stimulus type (verbal or pictorial), and gender of individuals. The influence in decision-making was the dependent variable.

Subjects

The population called consists of individuals between the ages of eighteen and 25, belonging to the demographic cohort "Generation Z" (Zheng, 2018) living in Madrid, and who take a contour on a social network. The study population was recruited via the following advertizement on Twitter: "We demand volunteers, aged betwixt 18 and 25 years and living in Madrid to assist in conducting consumer research." According to the 2019 Almanac Written report on Social Media in Spain (Iab. Espana, 2019) 85% of people between sixteen and 30 years follow at least i "influencer," "youtuber," or "instagrammer." Because that under-18s need permission from their legal guardians to participate in this inquiry and Generation Z is assumed to comprise people born betwixt 1994 and 2010, it was decided that an age range between 18 and 25 years would provide a representative sample. In improver, people inside this accomplice are generally more than agile on social networks, tend to follow several "instagrammers" and "influencers," own smartphones, tend to follow trends in way closely, and are more permeable to unconscious perceptual processes (Fromm and Read, 2018). The participants signed an informed consent prior to their participation. No personal data were used in this enquiry except gender and age. The subjects were coded with an order number.

The experiment was conducted between September and October 2018. A not-experimental, exploratory, correlational, and cross-exclusive pattern was carried out past means of a horizontal networking sampling, a social networking that usually starts with a multiple (although relatively minor) number of initial contacts and then uses these to establish links with other research participants (Geddes et al., 2018) via social media like Twitter and Instagram. Horizontal networking uses both stiff and weak ties to bridge into new social networks, casting the sampling and recruitment net wide rather than deep (Talón-Ballestero et al., 2019). We obtained a big sample of around 390 individuals which, after filtering and debugging of information according to its relevance and representativeness, was reduced to 200 individuals, of whom 100 were men and 100 were women anile between 18 and 25 years.

To test the hypotheses, a set of ANOVA univariate general linear model (GLM) models (Bruno et al., 2020) and logistic regressions were run. The univariate GLM procedure provides regression analysis and analysis of variance for one dependent variable by 1 or more factors and/or variables. The factor variables split up the population into groups. Using this GLM procedure, we were able to test the null hypotheses almost the effects of other variables on the means of various groupings of a unmarried dependent variable. We were also able to investigate interactions between factors also as the effects of individual factors, some of which may be random (Garson, 2012).

The binary or dichotomous logit model (Hilbe, 2009) allows to model an equation whose result is interpreted equally the probability of belonging to the grouping, coded as 1. Its expression is as follows:

$\mathrm{Pr}(Y_i=1)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{one}}{\mathrm{i}+e^{-(\alpha +w_{\mathrm{one\; thousand}}{X}_{ki})}}}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{\alpha +w_g{X}_{ki}}}{\mathrm{ane}+{\mathrm{due\; east}}^{\alpha +w_{\mathrm{grand}}{\mathrm{10}}_{ki}}}}$

I of the properties of this model is the interpretation of the parameters, where the sign and the value need to be considered. The term odds is divers as follows:

$Odds=\frac{Prob(Y_i=1)}{1-Prob(Y_i=1)}=e\mathrm{ten}p\left(\mathrm{\alpha }+\sum _{j=1}^{\mathrm{thousand}}{w}_j{X}_j\right)$

The odds ratio is defined from ii associated ratios:

$odd\mathrm{southward}-ratio=\frac{odds2}{odds1}=exp\left({\mathrm{due\; west}}_j\right)$

The in a higher place expression suggests that a coefficient w _j close to 0 – or, equivalently, an odds ratio close to 1 – will hateful that changes in the explanatory variables associated with X _i will non have whatsoever result on the dependent variable. As discussed in a higher place, we tin interpret the coefficients equally the change that occurs in the logit term upon a unit increase in the associated explanatory variable.

The Statistical Software package used was SPSS 22.0. The dependent variable (either verbal or pictorial stimulus) behaves in a dichotomous manner, where category 1 is defined every bit those cases where the stimulus worked and category 0 corresponds to those respondents where the stimulus did non work (Košíková and Pilárik, 2012; Mladenović et al., 2016). The independent variables chosen were gender and the degree of extroversion, introversion, and neuroticism.

Procedure

From the 200 participants, 10 groups were formed, which ranged in size from 15 to 25 people, 8 of which were to be subject to experimental conditions, with two command groups. In the experimental groups, 50% of subjects were female and l% were male. In the ii control groups, the proportion of females was 60% against xl% for males. The assignment to each group was random.

Once divided, each group went into a room where they completed a personality questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Inventory Form B for adults (EPI-B), to evaluate their degree of introversion versus extroversion and to grade their extent of neuroticism.

After completing the questionnaire, two videos were presented to each group: ane depicting a human face, designed to equally represent masculine and feminine features and the other a human being figure, a male person in a neutral pose with his hands in his pockets (Figure 1).

Effigy 1. Human face and human being figure videos.

Each group was given the following instructions before viewing the videos:

"At present you will see two videos, please stay warning because after each video you volition demand to write on the card the following: when y'all meet a human confront, you will have to decide whether this is a homo or a adult female, and note this on the card; when you see a person, you will take to decide whether that person is dauntless or cowardly and note this on the card. Cheers very much for your cooperation."

The society of the presentation of the video was altered such that five out of the 10 groups (four experimental and i control) saw the video of the human face first, while the other five groups (iv experimental and 1 command) saw the video of the man effigy first.

Textile

Personality Test

We used the EPI-B Spanish version TEA 1973 to evaluate the dimensions of introversion–extroversion and neuroticism. The use of this questionnaire for this do is supported by the findings of Mitchell and Kumari (2016) who corroborated Eysenck's proposals for the biological model of personality and found that extraversion and neuroticism chronicle meaningfully to the functioning and the structure of various cortical and limbic brain regions. Their analysis demonstrated a robust human relationship between neuroticism and the functioning of several emotion processing networks in the brain, specially in the presence of negative stimuli. Close links were plant in regions of the brain involved in emotion regulation, low, and anxiety too as several sub-cortical and limbic regions.

A total of 10 videos were made using Adobe Premier. The duration of each video was 12 due south. For each video, there was a control condition and two experimental atmospheric condition.

Video 1 – Human being Face

Control condition: A human face appears for 12 due south (Figure ii).

Figure 2. Human confront.

Experimental condition one: A 12-s video of the human face is shown. Every iii s, a frame is interspersed with the word MALE for 10 ms. This frame is repeated three times (Figure 3).

Effigy 3. Verbal subliminal stimulus. Male – Female person.

Experimental condition ii: The same as in experimental condition 1, except that the discussion FEMALE is used (Figure iii).

Video two – Human Effigy

Control status: A human figure appears for 12 s (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Homo figure.

Experimental status i: A 12-s video of the human figure is shown. Every 3 s, a frame is interspersed with the scene of the same homo figure climbing up a stool in front of a tiny frightened mouse. This frame is repeated iii times (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Pictorial subliminal stimulus. Dauntless – Coward.

Experimental status two: The same as in experimental condition 1 except that the interspersed scene was of the same human being figure struggling fiercely against a lion (Effigy v).

Experimental Atmospheric condition

Each group was shown two videos (each ran for 12 south), the order of which was contradistinct. The choice of the groups was random. The 10 groups differed every bit shown in Table ane:

Group 1 was showtime shown the video containing the human figure with a dauntless experimental status and and then the second video containing the human face with the male person experimental condition.

Group 2 was first shown the video containing the human figure with a cowardly experimental condition and so the video containing the human being face with the female experimental condition.

Group 3 was get-go shown the video containing the man face with the male experimental condition and then the video containing the human figure with a dauntless experimental status.

Group 4 was showtime shown the video containing the human face with the female experimental status and then the video containing the human figure with a cowardly experimental status.

Grouping 5 was starting time shown the video containing the man effigy with the brave experimental status and and so the video containing the human being face up with the female person experimental condition.

Group 6 was start shown the video containing the human effigy with the cowardly experimental condition and then the video containing the man face with the male experimental condition.

Group 7 was first shown the video containing the human face with the female experimental condition and then the video containing the human figure with the cowardly experimental condition.

Group 8 was first shown the video containing the human confront with the male experimental condition and then the video containing the human figure with the cowardly experimental condition.

Group nine was showtime shown the control video containing the human effigy and and so the control video containing the human face up.

Group ten was first shown the control video containing the man confront and and then the control video containing the man figure.

Table i. Experimental and command grouping stimuli.

The videos and stimuli were shown in different orders to evaluate if the guild was important for unconscious process.

Hypotheses

The expansion of cerebral neurosciences and developments in imaging radio-diagnosis techniques, traditionally used in medicine, has driven their use in areas as diverse as marketing and consumer behavior. Knowing how the human brain works, which lobes are activated, and its activeness in the face of sure stimuli has allowed a complete theory well-nigh man behavior to develop (Opris et al., 2020).

To test the propositions, we divided the sample into command and experimental groups and formulated the offset hypothesis equally follows:

Hypothesis (H₁): The percentage of people who perceive the verbal or pictorial stimuli for the experimental grouping is greater than for the control group.

To exam whether gender is a factor that can discriminate in the perception of stimulus, we formulate the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis (H₂): Gender is a determinant variable for verbal or pictorial stimuli responses.

To determine if personality traits have influence in stimuli acquisition, we formulated these hypotheses:

Hypothesis (H₃): Personality traits are associated with the pictorial stimulus.

Sub-hypotheses:

Hypothesis (H_{3 A}): Neuroticism as a personality trait is associated with pictorial stimulus.

Hypothesis (H_{3 B}): Extroversion as a personality trait is associated with pictorial stimulus.

Hypothesis (H_{3 C}): Introversion as a personality trait is associated with pictorial stimulus.

Hypothesis (H_iv): Personality traits are associated with the verbal stimulus.

Sub-hypotheses:

Hypothesis (H_4A): Neuroticism equally a personality trait is associated with exact stimulus.

Hypothesis (H_4B): Extroversion every bit a personality trait is associated with verbal stimulus.

Hypothesis (H_4C): Introversion equally a personality trait is associated with verbal stimulus.

Although an objective of this study is to constitute whether pictorial and exact stimuli work in the aforementioned way, the inquiry likewise aims to verify that personality and gender traits are decisive for one of these stimuli.

Main Findings

The data analysis was conducted in stages. In the offset stage, a descriptive analysis of the sample was undertaken to decide the proportions of individuals by gender, the average percentiles for personality variables (degree of neuroticism and extroversion–introversion), and the degree of response to the stimuli (see variable code in Table 2). The society in which the stimuli were shown was not found to be important for the unconscious processes.

Table 2. Summary of variable codes.

Tabular array 3 provides the summary of the descriptive statistics for the control grouping. For the gender variable, 81.82% of men were included in this control group. According to their answers, 93.94% of the respondents idea that the homo face was female (the variable was coded "0" as female and "1" every bit male), and but eighteen.18% thought that the moving picture was of a dauntless human ("0" every bit a coward and "1" equally a brave man). As for their personality traits, the observed percentiles of neuroticism, extroversion, and introversion were 56.93, 73.96, and 61.51, respectively. The personality trait extroversion–introversion was divided into two different variables, and the introversion variable was re-scaled to be measured in the same sense as the extroversion variable. With the re-scaling, the higher percentile of the variable, the more introverted the person.

Table 3. Summary descriptive statistics of the control group.

Tabular array 4 shows the same variables as for Table 3 but for the experimental groups. The percentage of male and females who participated in these groups was fifty%. Effectually three-quarters (75.32%) of the respondents thought that the man face up was female, while 34.42% considered the motion picture to be of a dauntless human being. The percentiles of neuroticism, extroversion, and introversion were 55.36, 68.39, and 61.01, respectively. The results of the departure of proportion tests are shown in Tables 5, 6. These bear witness that there are no statistically significant differences in the proportion of people responding to the subliminal message of the human figure (pictorial stimulus) at 5% significance level (p > 0.05, where p means examination p-value). Past contrast, when focusing on the human confront subliminal message (verbal stimulus), the difference of proportion test shows statistically pregnant differences between the response of the control and the experimental groups (p < 0.05). This is an important finding every bit it shows that the homo face up subliminal messaging works.

Tabular array 4. Summary descriptive statistics of the experimental group.

Table 5. Divergence of proportions: Cow_Brav.

Tabular array 6. Deviation of proportions: Male_Female.

If we compare the results of the mean values in Tables 3, 4, we can see that the values of neuroticism, extroversion, and introversion variables are very similar, both for the command groups and for the experimental groups. A contrast of mean difference was carried out, in which the p-values were pregnant at all accepted levels, which allows us to conclude that there are no differences in the percentiles of the variables described above betwixt the control and the experiment groups. This finding allows the states to conclude that there is no bias in the assignment of individuals to the reference grouping, so the individuals are well distributed in both the control and the experimental groups.

In the 2d phase, the variance for the ii types of stimuli (verbal and pictorial) was modeled (as shown in Tables 7, 8). In the get-go model, which considered the pictorial stimulus type (coward–brave), the gender of individuals was detected as a variable influencing decision-making (p < 0.05). Nonetheless, neither the personality trait variables nor the type of unconscious perceptual processing was found to be pregnant (p > 0.05). In the 2d model, which considered the verbal stimulus type (male–female person), the degree of neuroticism and the gender of the individual were detected as influential variables in decision-making (p < 0.05), but neither extroversion nor introversion.

Table 7. ANOVA univariate model: Cow_Brav.

Table 8. ANOVA univariate model: Male_Female.

To carry out this analysis, personality traits were converted into factors, coded every bit 0 when there is an absenteeism of personality trait factor.

In the third stage, a binary logit model was used to quantify the variables that affect the propensity to influence unconscious processing in decision-making (Tables 9, 10). A logit model is a kind of a regression model which is more appropriate considering the dependent variable is dichotomous. The participants watched two videos (human effigy and man face). The results of the commencement video (man figure) support that gender is a significant variable (p < 0.05), but neither personality traits nor assimilation of the stimulus were found to be significant (p > 0.05). An odds ratio estimate of 2.548 implies that a male is twice more likely to be influenced by the pictorial stimulus than a female, merely no influence of personality traits was detected.

Table nine. Binary logit model: Cow_Brav.

Tabular array 10. Binary logit model : Male_Female.

For the 2d video (verbal stimulus), the variables gender, absorption of the stimulus, and degree of neuroticism are pregnant (p < 0.05), pregnant that an influence on the unconscious perceptual stimulus is more than likely for females. Being influenced by verbal stimuli reduces by 0.7% for males. An increase in one percentile unit of the level of neuroticism increases the perception of verbal subliminal stimulus by five%. In terms of the perception of true stimulus, being a woman and having loftier levels of neuroticism represents twice every bit likely to digest such stimulus against the remainder of the individuals.

Discussion

To verify the applicability of these new paradigms, many studies are conducted by dividing the sample into control group and experimental group (Takemura, 2019; Kalkova et al., 2020). If the proportion of individuals in the experimental grouping who perceive the stimulus produced by the subliminal message is statistically superior to the proportion of individuals in the command group who can respond past take chances, so we tin can say that the stimulus works.

If the responses are different past groups and 1 of them is more prone to be influenced by subliminal messages, this means that the subliminal messages work. According to our hypothesis, we can conclude that H ₁ can exist accepted.

Several studies show that consumer decision-making and behavior are determined by dissimilar aspects but are clearly differentiated by gender (Lin et al., 2019). Consistent with the Maslow pyramid, the need and motivation to purchase depends on impulsivity, acceptance, and prior conditioning of beliefs and attitudes also equally personality traits and gender.

As Tables 7, 8 evidence, for both exact and pictorial stimuli [as seen in Bruno et al. (2020)] the gender variable is determinant in explaining unconscious processes. In addition, for verbal stimuli, variables such as gender and the level of neuroticism announced important to perceive the subliminal stimulus. In this case, nosotros can take the H ₂ hypothesis.

Finally, on personality traits, Bustin et al. (2012) and Mitchell and Kumari (2016) have studied the cognitive neuroscience of personality through fMRI and the encephalon regions that are activated in the face of attitudes of extroversion, introversion, and neuroticism, based on Eysenck's biological model (Eysenck, 1994) equally well as how unconscious processes tin be modulated from subliminal reward signals. In this example, this study aims to shed more evidence to determine whether personality traits influence the perception of subliminal stimuli.

For the video of the human figure (pictorial stimulus), the results differ somewhat. While gender is significant, meaning that females again improve perceive the unconscious stimulus, this does not take a measurable effect on subliminal induced response. While they receive the stimulus, they fail to give the right answer (Bruno et al., 2020). As the results show, hypothesis H _iii and all its sub-hypotheses (H _3A, H _3B, and H _3C) can be rejected where personality traits practice not determine the perception of the subliminal message (see Tables nine, 10).

In view of this result, we considered the reasons why this stimulus has failed to influence conclusion-making.

We analyzed unlike experimental groups aslope the control groups through a statistical assay of the departure of response ratios. For the homo figure (coward–brave), the results were non statistically significant at the 1% level against the control group, whereas the results were statistically significant for the homo confront (male–female) (Amihai et al., 2011; Aguado et al., 2014; Bruno et al., 2020).

For the video of the human being face (verbal stimulus), the results are stronger. Both gender and the level of neuroticism turn out to be relevant variables when perceiving the stimulus in an unconscious decision-making process (Aguado et al., 2014).

Females are far more influenced past unconsciously perceived stimuli in decision-making. In addition, females have a higher level of perceptual unconsciousness than males, resulting in them assimilating to a greater caste the unconscious stimulus and its influence on determination-making. The caste of neuroticism is a status that favored the absorption of subliminal stimuli, that is, those with high levels of neuroticism are more than likely to better digest the stimulus. Every bit a consequence, people with emotional liability and hyperactivity, that is, being emotionally hypersensitive, are more influenced by unconscious stimulation than those with low levels of neuroticism. Post-obit this finding, hypothesis H ₄ can be partially accepted. Hypothesis H _4A can be accustomed, just both H _4B and H _4C can be rejected.

Conclusion

This paper was motivated by the gap detected in the literature regarding the role of gender and personality traits in response to subliminal letters and in unconscious processes. Previous studies have followed two broad approaches: the showtime with personality variables and unconscious controlling processes, subliminal messages, and visual masking or semantic priming techniques and the second with verbal and pictorial messages, using the same techniques, just without considering the personality characteristics or the gender of individuals.

By contrast, this study has dealt simultaneously with different subliminal messages, both verbal and pictorial, personality traits, and gender. For decision-making purposes, information technology is of import to know if males or females are more probable to be influenced by subliminal messages and whether these take measurable effects on their behavior. Furthermore, different personality traits can affect this influence. Therefore, it would be advisable for digital marketers like "influencers" and "instagrammers" to become aware of these direct specific actions aimed at certain objectives to strengthen loyalty in their brands and brand marketing campaigns more constructive.

In view of the results obtained, it tin exist confirmed, different in previous studies where techniques such as the utilize of fMRI were not applied, that unconsciously processed information can influence controlling. The verbal stimulus and levels of neuroticism bear witness statistically meaning impacts in measuring the effect of behavior on the unconscious controlling procedure. Neither extroversion nor introversion was shown to be relevant for this unconscious controlling processes, under either of the two stimuli. Under the experimental atmospheric condition, the subliminal verbal stimulus was more than effective than the pictorial stimulus, as recent research has shown. In an endeavor to investigate this result and, in detail, the bias toward associating the human figure (pictorial stimulus) every bit a coward in the responses of the experimental groups, we asked if at that place was a feature of the effigy that made them think it was cowardly. The participants answered that the human figure had a mitt in his pocket, which signified that he was hiding something and therefore was a coward. This response must be considered in a subsequent investigation.

Gender has a measurable result for both exact and pictorial stimuli. However, for the pictorial stimulus, we can only conclude that the beliefs is dissimilar for males and females, observing that existence male increases the probability of stating that the individual in the human being figure is brave just without reflecting statistical significance. For the exact stimulus, the gender variable is highly meaning, in addition to representing a measurable upshot together with the actual stimulus.

This newspaper presents several limitations that will guide the evolution of time to come research. The results are limited to Spanish Twitter users and the way they follow "influencers," "youtubers," and "instagrammers." Therefore, the prove shown in this paper cannot be generalized to unlike social media or geographical contexts. Moreover, it is necessary to develop a broader study because other personality traits, post-obit a model dissimilar from Eysenck's theory, and adding other variables similar extended age range, social condition, and economic resources. Some other limitation is the way the videos were presented and the time between subliminal messages. Due to the technical characteristics of the devices used, the presentation time did not allow usa to decrease the presentation fourth dimension of the subliminal stimuli, which might take influenced the management of the response.

Given the results of this piece of work, two different lines of further research are being carried out. In the first, we are adapting a newly developed model of personality traits, and in the 2nd, new complementary technical devices are being considered, like middle-tracking, blood pressure level, galvanic skin response, and 3D video.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article volition be made available past the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

Ethical approval was non provided for this study on human being participants because at the request of the inquiry team, the Research Ethics Committee at King Juan Carlos University was consulted and we were verbally confirmed that, in accord with our local legislation and institutional requirements our study was exempt from ethical approval, for its specific characteristics. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

D-SM and JR-G contributed to the introduction, report design and methodology, master findings, and conclusion. Both authors contributed to the commodity and canonical the submitted version.

Disharmonize of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could exist construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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