29 Subliminal messages in music? Is there an effect of subliminal messages in music on choice behavior? Hauke Egermann, Reinhard Kopiez Hanover University of Music and Drama, Institute for Research in Music Education, Germany Christoph Reuter Institute for Applied Musicology and Psychology, Cologne, Germany The present study examines the effects of subliminal text messages in music on choice behavior. Subliminal messages are assumed to function as auditory primers. The results of two experiments will be presented: In Experiment 1, the authors tried to manipulate choice behavior of adult students (N = 66; age: 19-30 years) using subliminally presented words in two pop music pieces. In two blinded, non-directed listening tasks, subjects had (a) to choose one word out of ten from a list of words (condition wordlist), and (b) to indicate which drink they would like by putting a plastic chip into a box standing in front of four labeled bottles of water (condition choice of drink). Musical examples without subliminal messages were used as a control condition. No signiicant differences were found between experimental and control conditions. In Experiment 2, children (N = 82; age: 7-11 years) served as subjects. Regardless of the task and age group, no effects of subliminal messages on choice behavior could be observed. The paper concludes with a general discussion about the lack of theories that could explain any observed effects of subliminal manipulation. Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis Vol. 4, No. 2 Copyright 2006 by Reysen Group. 1539-8714 www.jasnh.com