Mere exposure effect - Definition and Overview

The mere exposure effect is a psychological artifact well known to advertisers: people express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them. This effect has been nicknamed the "familiarity breeds liking" effect.

Simply exposing experimental subjects to a picture or a piece of music briefly led those subjects to later rate it more positively than other, similar stimuli which they had merely not been shown earlier. In another experiment, students were shown a Chinese ideogram on a tachistoscope faster than could be perceived consciously. Later, students rated these ideograms as better than those to which they had not been exposed. Interestingly, when asked, the students were able to cite specific and detailed reasons why they preferred the ideograms that they did (which must have been at least partially rationalization).

This effect was first studied by Robert Zajonc. A related effect relevant to advertising and propaganda is the sleeper effect.

See also

• list of cognitive biases
• propinquity effect

References

• Zajonc, R. B. Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure. (1968). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 2, 1-27.
• Kunst-Wilson, W. R. & Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Affective discrimination of stimuli that cannot be recognized. Science, 207, 557-558.

External links

• Changing minds: mere exposure theory (http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/mere_exposure.htm)
• Mere exposure and attitude change (http://ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_02/adv382j/jeong/Pintro.htm)