7 Psychological 'Tricks' That Are Total Bullsh*t

5. Subliminal Messaging Can Control Your Mind

Fret not, you can safely allow your offspring to listen to classic rock albums without turning them into little satanists (unless that was your aim, in which case, bad luck). Similarly, you can let them watch movies without them becoming little capitalist gremlins, because things like subliminal advertising and backmasking do not work as brainwashing techniques.

Despite the controversy in the 80s, hiding demonic messages in music by playing it backwards has zero chance of opening people's hearts to satan. The brain won't register the backward sounds as words because, get this, they're different sounds.

The one and only study that claimed the "single frame flash" was an effective subliminal advertising technique is now thought to have been based on falsified data. Flashing up "Drink Coke" and "Eat Popcorn" on a cinema screen isn't what makes people want to do those things at the movies. It probably has more to do with all the delicious sugar.