(HealthDayNews) -- Subliminal messages can work -- if you use the right words.
As reported in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, researchers at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom subjected a group of 100 women who hadn't eaten in four hours to different subliminal messages. Then the women were given a chance to eat.
Here are the results: The subliminal word gallery was used as a neutral control. As expected, women who were exposed to that word didn't show any special eating patterns. But neither did women who were shown the word happy or -- and this may be a surprise -- the word hungry.
What words did make women eat more? The runner up was angry, and the word that had the most effect was lonely.
