Greenwald, Spangenberg, Pratkanis, and Eskanazi (1991) randomly assigned participants to subliminal audiotapes that were supposed to improve memory or self-esteem. Half of the participants were told that the tape improves memory, and half were told that the tape improves self-esteem, regardless of the subliminal content of the tape. The results showed that the subliminal content of the tape had no effect on either memory or self-esteem. Instead, only placebo effects were found. That is, when participants were told that the tape improves memory, temporary memory improvement was observed, and when participants were told that the tape improves self-esteem, temporary self-esteem improvement was observed. Hence, conscious expectations trump subconscious messages.