This theoretical review explores whether subliminal audio can affect self-esteem via nonconscious auditory processing. It synthesises key evidence on attention and auditory selection, indicators of automatic processing (such as mismatch negativity), and methodological standards for establishing genuine subliminality. The review also evaluates controlled studies on subliminal self-help recordings, concluding that reported improvements are more plausibly explained by expectancy and labelling effects than by the subliminal content itself. Overall, it contends that although brief nonconscious activation is possible, enduring changes in self-esteem are unlikely to occur without broader cognitive and social processes.
Valenzuela Garcia Hector (Sat,) studied this question.