Abstract
This paper examines the area of subliminal priming and whether people can be
subliminally primed for happiness. In the experiment a group of students were presented with
an episode of The Simpsons television programme. Embedded in the programme presented
below the participant’s conscious awareness were 19 visual positive affirmations, with the
word “Happiness” appearing 13 times and the word “Joy” appearing 8 times. The students
were required to complete three self report questionnaires, a SHS to determine happiness
levels prior to priming along with the LOT-R and SWLS to measure satisfaction with life
after priming. The results suggested that happiness is an enduring trait, not susceptible to
subliminal priming and not easy to measure in a one off experiment. Author keywords: positive subliminal priming
