Behavioral Effects of the Subconscious

Behavioral Effects of the Subconscious Mind

Muhammad Bilal

“The devil made me do it” (Kay & Henry, 1970) this famous line, used in conjunction with inappropriate behavior, originated on the hilariously funny 1970s television series The Flip Wilson Show. This comedic and enduring phrase’s purpose is to justify any misconduct committed by any who dare to utter those devilish words. Is it only a devil that influences negative behavior, or can a portion be attributed to a mental compartment called the subconscious mind? The subconscious mind is affected by stimuli in the environment. These stimuli create and influence perception that can negatively affect behavior.
Conscious Mind
Each day human beings perform tasks and display particular emotions or gestures without total awareness of them, thinking about them, or remembering how to perform them. The brain records, stores and never loses information regarding tasks performed and every day routines. According to Rathus (1987), the conscious mind deals with sensory awareness and direct inner awareness. Sensory awareness takes notice of the surroundings like a beautiful sunset, snowcapped mountains, or music from a concert. Direct inner awareness deals more with thoughts, images and memories. Acts committed in the conscious mind are deliberate and are a result of perception and critical thinking.
Subconscious Mind
Obviously the conscious mind plays a significant role in the ability to function but the subconscious mind plays” a crucial role in many of the mental facilities we prize as uniquely human. It is not an unthinking auto pilot that needs to be subjugated by rationality, but a purposeful, active and, independent guide to behavior.” (Carey, 2007) Diurnal duties are completed on a conscious level but reactions to everyday events within the environment are all controlled by the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind, unlike the conscious mind, is a catch all, meaning its radar picks up any and everything. Thoughts and ideas that occupy the conscious mind are manifest, literally in the moment and have a direct influence on behavior. Subconscious thoughts are obscure but still have direct influence on perception that affects behavior.
The subconscious mind picks up every piece of information present, captures it stores it and uses it to alter perceptions and create various behaviors. The subconscious channels everything present and categorizes it by a form of critical thinking that takes place naturally. This level of mind produces a behavioral pattern in conjunction with each piece of channeled information; a program waiting for execution. The factors composing our environment determine the type of prearranged responses archived in mental compartments for later use. Often people encounter others for whom they dislike for no apparent reason or walked into a room and began feeling a particular emotion, whether happy or unsettling. This could be a stranger or place never visited but yet it has conjured a particular emotion. This person or new environment equipped with a particular stimulus triggers a behavioral pattern stored by the subconscious, created during the initial exposure of this channeled information that brought about a stored reaction, whether positive or negative. In other words, say each behavior stored has a color code or matched with a particular scent or any of the other senses. Throughout the environments colors and scents are manifold. When a person encounters a particular color or scent, the stimulus alters the perception and triggers a certain behavior matched to that particular color or scent. What happens when the stimuli are more advanced? Is it possible to manipulate the mind for the purpose of promoting particular behaviors?
Subliminal Seduction
Subliminal seduction occurs when a message or picture is covertly embedded within another that alters perception and behavior. This term is very controversial and has a more significant effect on the mind. In the past it was alleged that products such as Camel, Gilbey’s gin and Pepsi all used subliminal seduction to arouse interest in their products through sexual stimuli. Allegedly the forenamed products embedded sexual imagery into their products. The subconscious detected the images and made the products seem more appealing. In the seventies the music group, Queen was criticized for using subliminal messages in the popular song, Another One Bites the Dust, which promoted drug use. In today’s music the message is not so subliminal. Can music have a negative effect on the subconscious and behavior?
Music on the Mind
Someone once said Music calms the savage beast. Is it possible for music to incite the beast as well? Let us replace the beast with a 10 year old boy. Are songs and their lyrics powerful enough to reach the subconscious and alter his behavior? Lloyd Eby assistant senior editor for the monthly online publication The World & I writes what Allen Bloom, a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago, states about the negative forces within today’s music, especially Hip Hop, which glamorizes lewd behavior and the solecisms of today. He states: In fact, the force is such that it bypasses the reasoning part of the human mind and urges or even compels thoughts and behaviors that, on reflection, the person may repudiate. (Eby, 2003):

The melodies pave a way for the suggestive lyrics to according to Bloom, bypass the reasoning parts of the brain and urge the listener to conjure thoughts and behaviors that the listener would not normally think or display with a clear head. Through rebuttal many adults may say that their minds are strong and wise enough to only view the music as entertainment and uninfluenced by the suggestive material. This could be true but Bloom says:
Cognitive level is not the one on which rap operates on six- to twelve-year-olds. It influences them pre-cogitatively, insinuating itself into their spirits, so to speak, in such a way that their young selves are formed, without their conscious knowledge or consent, into its way of being and outlook. (Eby, 2003):

The message in the music permeates the mind into the subconscious of the youth and lays a foundation of tainted soil from which new positive seeds of life are to grow. The conditions in the mind are not suitable for this growth; choked are the positive plants by the surviving weeds of despicable attitudes and behaviors regarding sex, violence and drugs. This can happen with adults as well. A snap shot of the moral level in society is evidence enough. This is only from the effects of music, not to mention, the other forms of indecent media and its assumptions and associations.
Conclusion
All sorts of suggestions and associations today bombard the conscious and subconscious. The TV media, the movies, and the music are extremely busy and effective in influencing perception and behavior especially in young people. So it may not be totally accurate to say the devil made me do it, but the devil is surely in the details.

References

Rathus, S. A. (1987). Psychology (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Holt, Rhinehart,Winston.
Carey, B. (2007, July 1). Who 's Minding the Mind. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html?_r=1&ex=1186632 000&en=da72f239cc01b5ff&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Eby, L. (2003.). "Why Eminem Is A Problem." Dynamic Argument, Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx.
Kay, M., & Henry, B. (Producer). (1970). The Flip Wilson Show. [Television series]. : NBC.

References: Rathus, S. A. (1987). Psychology (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Holt, Rhinehart,Winston. Carey, B. (2007, July 1). Who 's Minding the Mind. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html?_r=1&ex=1186632 000&en=da72f239cc01b5ff&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Eby, L. (2003.). "Why Eminem Is A Problem." Dynamic Argument, Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx. Kay, M., & Henry, B. (Producer). (1970). The Flip Wilson Show. [Television series]. : NBC.