Subconscious Awareness
The capacity of the non-conscious perceptual system is considerably larger in humans when compared to the limited capacity to attend to conscious information. Hence, only a trivial amount of momentary information is brought to conscious attention. This means that the majority of this momentary information is processed non-consciously. Furthermore, this non-consciously processed information can influence human behaviour in a manner that resembles conscious awareness of the same information. ~ English psychologist Anthony Blanchfield et al
Cycling endurance athletes wearing special glasses were shown subliminal images (lasting less than 0.02 seconds) during their performances. Those shown images of positive affect, such as happy face emoticons, pedaled 12% longer than those that subconsciously saw sad faces. Cellular fatigue was equivalently less.
Individuals with the highest levels of optimism have twice the odds of being in ideal cardiovascular health compared to their more pessimistic counterparts. This association remains significant, even after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and poor mental health. ~ American public health scholar Rosalba Hernandez
