The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people
tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with
them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity
principle. The effect has been demonstrated with many kinds of things,
including words, Chinese characters, paintings, pictures of faces, geometric
figures, and sounds. In studies of interpersonal attraction, the more often
a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person
appears to be. Research
The earliest known research on the effect was conducted by Gustav Fechner
in 1876. Edward B. Titchener also documented the effect and described the
"glow of warmth" felt in the presence of something that is familiar. However,
Titchener's hypothesis was thrown out once tested and results showed that the
enhancement of preferences for objects did not depend on the individual's
subjective impressions of how familiar the objects were. The rejection of
Titchener's hypothesis spurred further research and the development of current
theory. The scholar who is best known for
developing the mere-exposure effect is Robert Zajonc. Before conducting his
research, he observed that exposure to a novel stimulus initially elicits a
fear/avoidance response by all organisms. Each repeated exposure to the
novel stimulus causes less fear and more of an approach tactic by the observing
organism. After repeated exposure, the observing organism will begin to react
fondly to the once novel stimulus. This observation led to the research and
development of the mere-exposure effect. = Zajonc =
In the 1960s, a series of laboratory experiments by Robert Zajonc
demonstrated that simply exposing subjects to a familiar stimulus led them
to rate it more positively than other, similar stimuli which had not been
presented. In the beginning of his research, Zajonc looked at language and
the frequency of words used. He found that overall positive words received
more usage than their negative counterparts. In later years, he moved
on to show similar results for a variety of stimuli such as polygons, drawings,
photographs of expressions, nonsense words, and idiographs, as well as when
being judged by a variety of procedures such as liking, pleasantness, and
forced-choice measures. In 1980, Zajonc proposed the affective
primacy hypothesis, which hypothesizes that affective reactions can be
"elicited with minimal stimulus input". Through mere-exposure experiments,
Zajonc sought to provide evidence for the affective-primacy hypothesis,
namely, that affective judgments are made without prior cognitive processes.
Zajonc tested this hypothesis by presenting repeated stimuli to
participants at suboptimal thresholds such that they did not show conscious
awareness or recognition of the repeated stimuli, but continued to show affective
bias towards the repeatedly exposed stimuli. Zajonc compared results from
primes exposed longer which allowed for conscious awareness to stimuli which
were shown briefly such that participants did not show conscious
awareness. He found that the primes shown more briefly and not recognized
prompted faster responses for liking as compared to primes shown at conscious
levels. One experiment that was conducted to
test the mere-exposure effect used fertile chicken eggs for the test
subjects. Tones of two different frequencies were played to different
groups of chicks while they were still unhatched. Once hatched, each tone was
played to both groups of chicks. Each set of chicks consistently chose the
tone prenatally played to it. Zajonc tested the mere-exposure effect by using
meaningless Chinese characters on two groups of individuals. The individuals
were then told that these symbols represented adjectives and were asked to
rate whether the symbols held positive or negative connotations. The symbols
that had been previously seen by the test subjects were consistently rated
more positively than those unseen. After this experiment, the group with repeated
exposure to certain characters reported being in better moods and felt more
positive than those who did not receive repeated exposure.
In another variation, subjects were shown an image on a tachistoscope for a
very brief duration that could not be perceived consciously. This subliminal
exposure produced the same effect, though it is important to note that
subliminal effects are unlikely to occur without controlled laboratory
conditions. According to Zajonc, the mere-exposure
effect is capable of taking place without conscious cognition, and that
"preferences need no inferences". This statement by Zajonc has spurred much
research in the relationship between cognition and affect. Zajonc explains
that if preferences were merely based upon information units with affect
attached to them, then persuasion would be fairly simple. He argues that this is
not the case: such simple persuasion tactics have failed miserably. Zajonc
states that affective responses to stimuli happen much more quickly than
cognitive responses, and that these responses are often made with much more
confidence. He states that thought and feeling are distinct, and that
cognitions are not free from affect, nor is affect free of cognition. Zajonc
states, "...the form of experience that we came to call feeling accompanies all
cognitions, that it arises early in the process of registration and retrieval,
albeit weakly and vaguely, and that it derives from a parallel, separate, and
partly independent system in the organism."
In regards to the mere-exposure effect and decision making, Zajonc states that
there has been no empirical proof that cognition precedes any form of decision
making. While this is a common assumption, Zajonc argues that the
opposite is more likely: decisions are made with little to no cognitive
process. He equates deciding upon something with liking it, meaning that
more often we cognize reasons to rationalize a decision instead of
deciding upon it. Therefore, we make judgments first, and then seek to
justify those judgments by rationalization.
= Goetzinger = Charles Goetzinger conducted an
experiment using the mere-exposure effect on his class at Oregon State
University. Goetzinger had a student come to class in a large black bag with
only his feet visible. The black bag sat on a table in the back of the classroom.
Goetzinger's experiment was to observe if the students would treat the black
bag in accordance to Zajonc's mere-exposure effect. His hypothesis was
confirmed. The students in the class first treated the black bag with
hostility, which over time turned into curiosity, and eventually friendship.
This experiment confirms Zajonc's mere-exposure effect, by simply
presenting the black bag over and over again to the students their attitudes
were changed, or as Zajonc states "mere repeated exposure of the individual to a
stimulus is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attitude toward
it". = Bornstein =
A meta-analysis of 208 experiments found that the mere-exposure effect is robust
and reliable, with an effect size of r=0.26. This analysis found that the
effect is strongest when unfamiliar stimuli are presented briefly. Mere
exposure typically reaches its maximum effect within 10–20 presentations, and
some studies even show that liking may decline after a longer series of
exposures. For example, people generally like a song more after they have heard
it a few times, but many repetitions can reduce this preference. A delay between
exposure and the measurement of liking actually tends to increase the strength
of the effect. The effect is weaker on children, and for drawings and paintings
as compared to other types of stimuli. One social psychology experiment showed
that exposure to people we initially dislike makes us dislike them even more.
= Zola–Morgan = In support of Zajonc's claim that affect
does not need cognition to occur, Zola–Morgan conducted experiments on
monkeys with lesions to the amygdala. In his experiments Zola–Morgan proved that
lesions to the amygdala impair affective functioning, but not cognitive
processes. However, lesions in the hippocampus impair cognitive functions
but leave emotional responses fully functional.
Two-factor theory The mere-exposure effect has been
explained by a two-factor theory that posits that repeated exposure of a
stimulus increases perceptual fluency which is the ease with which a stimulus
can be processed. Perceptual fluency, in turn, increases positive affect. Studies
showed that repeated exposure increases perceptual fluency, confirming the first
part of the two-factor theory. Later studies observed that perceptual fluency
is affectively positive, confirming the second part of the fluency account of
the mere-exposure effect. Application
= Advertising = The most obvious application of the
mere-exposure effect is found in advertising, but research has been mixed
as to its effectiveness at enhancing consumer attitudes toward particular
companies and products. One study tested the mere-exposure effect with banner ads
seen on a computer screen. The study was conducted on college-aged students who
were asked to read an article on the computer while banner ads flashed at the
top of the screen. The results showed that each group exposed to the "test"
banner rated the ad more favorably than other ads shown less frequently or not
at all. This research supports the evidence for the mere-exposure effect.
A different study showed that higher levels of media exposure are associated
with lower reputations for companies, even when the mere exposure is mostly
positive. A subsequent review of the research concluded that exposure leads
to ambivalence because it brings about a large number of associations, which tend
to be both favorable and unfavorable. Exposure is most likely to be helpful
when a company or product is new and unfamiliar to consumers. An 'optimal'
level of exposure to an advertisement may or may not exist. In a third study,
experimenters primed consumers with affective motives. One group of thirsty
consumers were primed with a happy face before being offered a beverage, while a
second group was primed with an unpleasant face. The group primed with
the happy face bought more beverages, and were also willing to pay more for
the beverage than their unhappy counterparts. This study bolsters
Zajonc's claim that choices are not in need of cognition. Buyers often choose
what they 'like' instead of what they have substantially cognized.
In the advertising world, the mere-exposure effect suggests that
consumers need not cognize advertisements: the simple repetition is
enough to make a 'memory trace' in the consumer's mind and unconsciously affect
their consuming behavior. One scholar explains this relationship as follows:
"The approach tendencies created by mere exposure may be preattitudinal in the
sense that they do not require the type of deliberate processing that is
required to form brand attitude." = Other areas =
The mere-exposure effect exists in most areas of human decision making. For
example, many stock traders tend to invest in securities of domestic
companies merely because they are more familiar with them despite the fact that
international markets offer similar or even better alternatives. The
mere-exposure effect also distorts the results of journal ranking surveys;
those academics who previously published or completed reviews for a particular
academic journal rate it dramatically higher than those who did not. There are
mixed results on the question of whether mere exposure can promote good relations
between different social groups. When groups already have negative attitudes
to each other, further exposure can increase hostility. A statistical
analysis of voting patterns found that a candidate's exposure has a strong effect
on the number of votes they receive, distinct from the popularity of the
policies. Another example would be an automotive journalist claiming his own
car being the best car in the world despite having driven countless cars.
See also Interpersonal attraction
Propinquity effect Subliminal advertising
Speech-to-song effect References
External links Changing minds: Mere exposure theory