CAT Question Paper | CAT Verbal Ability Slot
Question :

Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders alerted the public to the psychoanalytical techniques used by the advertising industry. Its premise was that advertising agencies were using depth interviews to identify hidden consumer motivations, which were then used to entice consumers to buy goods. Critics and reporters often wrongly assumed that Packard was writing mainly about subliminal advertising. Packard never mentioned the word subliminal, however, and devoted very little space to discussions of “subthreshold” effects. Instead, his views largely aligned with the notion that individuals do not always have access to their conscious thoughts and can be persuaded by supraliminal messages without their knowledge.

 

Started 2 months ago by Shashank in

Option B is the correct answer.

Explanatory Answer

According to the paragraph, Vance Packard found that advertising agencies identify hidden consumer motivation—thoughts that consumers are not aware they have. They use these to persuade consumers to buy, without the consumers themselves being aware of the fact that they are being persuaded. Packard’s theory related not to subliminal (subthreshold of consciousness) advertising but supraliminal (above the threshold of consciousness) advertising. Option 2 sums up all key ideas of the paragraph.

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