Subliminal Book Summary - Subliminal Book explained in key points

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Subliminal summary

Name: Subliminal
Rating: 4.3 (110 reviews)
Author: Leonard Mlodinow

Leonard Mlodinow

How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

4.3 (110 ratings)

31 mins

Topics

Neuromarketing

Table of Contents

Subliminal
Summary of 14 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 14

What’s in it for me? Learn how our unconscious affects how we make decisions.

How do we make decisions? Do we weigh up all the facts equally and make an informed choice?

Subliminal suggests otherwise. Instead of being conscious actors we are driven by our unconscious mind.

The dominance of our unconscious mind can lead us to do strange, irrational things and Subliminal will show you what these are. For instance, it will show you that we are more likely to be attracted to someone if we are standing on a high bridge.

By reading this book in blinks you will gradually understand the answers to important questions from “why do I think I am special?” to “why can’t I seem to deal with my emotions effectively?”

Many theories tried to explain the unconscious mind but modern technology finally revealed its complexity.

For millennia, philosophers have speculated about the nature of the unconscious mind.

For example, in the 1700s Immanuel Kant proposed that our mind does not experience objective reality, but rather that it creates its own version.

Then, in 1900, Sigmund Freud postulated an interpretation of the unconscious mind that became very popular. Freud said that the unconscious is often unnatural and unhealthy due to our repression of incestual attraction and painful memories.

Yet this view didn’t stand up to scientific rigor as it was mythical, dream-like, irrational and, as a theory, highly unreliable.

As it was so hard to unlock the secrets of the unconscious mind, later research moved away to other areas. Many scientists began to argue that humans were like animals: complex yet predictable machines with brains like computers.

However, by the 1980s new research had re-ignited our interest in the unconscious. And at the same time new technology finally enabled us to map the brain’s organization and activity.

Technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging has allowed neuroscientists to scan the brain's blood flow changes and structure with 3D precision. From the activity of nerve cells and the oxygen consumption of research subjects performing tasks, mental processes can be linked to specific neural pathways.

With this information we can make great strides in explaining the unconscious.

We know of the brain’s three interdependent layers. The deepest and oldest is “reptilian” – responsible for tasks like breathing, eating and the fight-or-flight instinct. We share it with reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish.

Over this part sits the more sophisticated “old mammalian” or limbic system, responsible for unconscious social perception and behaviors.

Above this is the neocortex, which promotes goal-related actions and conscious thought. It also deals with the unconscious processes of rendering vision and precise motor movements, such as fingers and facial expressions. We humans have this part in abundance.

The unconscious mind collects raw data from our senses and summarizes it for our conscious mind

If you were to hear a loud, unexpected bang, the chances are that you would react instantly and jump out of your skin. That’s because when your unconscious mind perceives a threat it acts instinctively to keep you out of danger.

This subliminal awareness of the environment evolved in our ancestors long before conscious awareness. Its primary goal was to keep us alive, to avoid potential threats, and find food and mates.

Body language allows us to unconsciously interpret the behavior and opinions of others.

Our bodies are just as expressive as our words. Without body language, we would find it hard to sense the intentions of other humans. For example, each of us has relied on body language to signal such things as potential threats, friendships and relationships.

We inherited body language perception from our distant ancestors, and it is as natural and essential to humans as it is for other animals.

Subtle changes in our voice advertise our attractiveness to others and reveal the nature of our character.

Many people interpret evolution as telling us that men seek dominance and sex, while women want a loyal mate and babies. The evidence for this comes from analyzing our body language, especially the tone, pitch and volume of our voice.

Indeed, men and women unconsciously adjust their voice for sexual success.

We can’t remember everything, so our unconscious mind fills in the gaps in our memories – but it isn't always accurate.

However much we'd like it, our brains are not video cameras, recording everything for our later recall. The amount of information would be overwhelming to our brains.

Instead, our memory evolved to discard the majority of our experiences and save memories in general form – especially the important ones.

Our emotions arise from unconscious biases and sensory data, so our conscious mind can’t uncover their roots.

The human brain is not particularly adept at helping us understand our feelings and emotions. This is a legacy from evolution – the main drive of our ancestors was to stay alive and breed, not to comprehend themselves. This makes it hard for us to recognize and deal with our emotions.

This difficulty partly arises from the fact that our feelings are a product of our unconscious mind. Emotions work in the following way: the environment supplies data to our senses, to which our unconscious mind produces a physiological response. It is this response that we experience as emotion.

We are biased in our judgments and decision making when we defend previously held beliefs.

Our minds are made up of two opposing characters. We have our conscious mind, which thinks like a scientist – weighing up evidence and seeking the objective truth. Then there’s the unconscious mind, which acts like a lawyer – first making a decision, then defending its position.

Unfortunately for us, our lawyer brain is the stronger of the two characters. This leads us to support conclusions that affirm our beliefs rather than look for any alternatives. Also, this makes us adjust facts to fit viewpoint and ignore unfavorable evidence; this is an example of motivated reasoning.

We all think that we are special and this makes us prone to overestimating our abilities.

In 1959, three mental patients who claimed to be Jesus were put in the same room together, to test how this would affect their self-perception.

When they were introduced, one gave up his belief and resumed normality, one accused the others of being deluded, while the third completely avoided addressing the situation. Unbelievably, in spite of the evidence, two of the three maintained their fantasy.

Our unconscious mind compels us to be sociable; the consequences of exclusion include physical illness.

Before we are able to talk or even walk, we are attracted to friendliness and repelled by hostility. Babies like to touch the faces of people they see help others, and are repelled by faces whose owners hindered others. Research has shown this to be true even if the faces are fake – like bits of wood with eyes stuck on them.

This is evidence that it’s in our nature to socialize. And our brains are equipped with the hardware to help us do so.

Our social behavior is determined by chemicals in the brain and unconscious habits.

Scientists and philosophers have long wondered how unique we are as humans. Certainly no other species shares our complexity or capability. Yet we aren’t as special a species as we like to think. Areas of our brain are governed by the same principles found throughout nature.

The behavior of both humans and animals is driven by brain chemicals. For example, the release of a few chemicals in the brain has the power to make us trusting. Yet we wouldn’t want too much of this, as we’d end up trusting everyone. So it’s a finite resource, switched on and off by nature.

People rely on implicit stereotypes and labels which affect how we see others in society.

Do you think you are fair and open-minded?

Many of us pride ourselves on having these qualities. Unfortunately, lurking beneath our surface are some murky prejudices.

The instinct to identify with groups fuels prejudice in favor of members and against non-members.

We all have groups to whom we feel we belong. These are groups such as gender, nationality, politics and religious belief.

We switch our identities depending on the situation in which we find ourselves.

We base the choices we make in life – from what we buy to whom we vote for – on the most trivial of details.

No one would think the weather or the pronunciation of a company’s name would affect the performance of stocks and shares. But they do. Companies whose name is harder to pronounce are more likely to fail than those whose name is easy to say.

Many of our purchases are made based on such trivial factors as this – factors of which we are unaware.

Final Summary

The main message in this book is:

We are unaware of the work that our unconscious mind performs all the time – for example, to avoid danger, find food or be powerful. It has evolved to work well, but it also means that we are unable to understand it, we fail to recall events that happened to us with accuracy, and we like people and objects because of superficial factors. We are prone to adopt an us-vs-them mindset, labelling anyone who doesn’t fit into our current group as worse than our own, or just all the same. Our self-perception is generous, while we gloss over our errors.

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What is Subliminal about?

Subliminal (2012) shows us as we are, under the bonnet. It’s about how the unconscious mind is in charge, working away like an efficient yet imperfect machine, while we go on with our lives unaware. The reader finds studies, examples and anecdotes about the peculiarities of the unconscious mind, such as the pitfalls of memory recall, choosing a mate, buying a stock or scheduling a project. These are mined from historical events, science experiments and the authors’ own experiences, as well as from his friends in the scientific community.

Who should read Subliminal?

Anyone aiming to improve their social skills or persuasiveness
Anyone who always wanted to know the causes, benefits and flaws of the subliminal mind
Anyone interested in neuroscience or social psychology

About the Author

Leonard Mlodinow is a physicist and author of bestselling science books such as The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. He has a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California and teaches at the California Institute of Technology. His parents were concentration camp prisoners during World War II and their stories feature in Subliminal. In the past he has collaborated with luminaries like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking. He has also written scripts for TV science fiction series including Star Trek.

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