Research on perception outside of conscious awareness reveals that people often

Subliminal perception refers to an ability for stimuli that we are not aware of to affect our behavior.
Nonconscious processing of sensory stimuli does occur.
Priming studies demonstrate that subliminal perception can have an effect on our behavior.
For example, when words flashed subliminally are related to some personality trait, such as honesty, people are more likely later to judge someone they read about as having that trait.
The effect seen in priming studies is very small however.
Such nonconscious processing appears to occur not only in perception, but also in memory, thinking, and decision making.
Subliminal persuasion refers to the ability of subliminal stimuli to manipulate a person’s attitudes and behavior.
Most attempts by scientists to demonstrate subliminal persuasion have been unsuccessful.