What is the mere exposure effect?

Has it ever happened to you that you ended up liking a song that you were indifferent to after listening to it? Have you felt that the more time you spent with a person, the more pleasant they were to you? In the study of human preferences, the mere exposure effect has become relevant.

Also known as the familiarity principle, This effect explains why when we repeatedly expose ourselves to a novel stimulus our response to it becomes more positive..

In short, it reflects our predilection for those situations, people or objects that are familiar to us. But what factors influence the appearance of this phenomenon? Let’s learn in depth how it works.

The mere exposure effect in research

Robert Zajonc is one of the authors who has studied this particular psychological effect the most. Since the first research in 1876, the presence of this preference in the face of very diverse stimuli has been proven..

Words, sounds, photographs of faces… in all cases the subjects seem to favor those that are most familiar to them.

A study was carried out to test the influence of this effect on the predilection for certain foods.. To do this, a group of students were given several tropical juices that until then were unknown to them to try. Some tried them five times, others 10 and others 15. When they were asked which one they liked the most, a clear tendency appeared to judge those they had taken the most times as more positive.

The same results have been obtained in research on interpersonal attraction. The more often we see a person, the nicer they seem to us and the more we like their presence.

An unconscious phenomenon

But one of the most interesting aspects of this effect is that it is not necessary for the person to perceive familiarity in the stimulus. It’s more, the effect seems to be enhanced under “subliminal conditions”.

Zajonc conducted research in which he showed participants various images of Chinese characters. The exposure time to each symbol was so short that observers were not aware of what they were seeing.

Subjects were told that these characters represented adjectives and were asked to evaluate whether they had positive or negative connotations. Invariably Participants in the test group gave better ratings to those symbols to which they had already been exposed.

Evidently, Brands take the mere exposure effect into account in their advertising campaigns.. Familiarity with a logo, a slogan or a corporate image can make us opt for that specific product.

This way of thinking would explain why, when touring in new cities, we are tempted to go to the franchises we know… despite our desire to explore the local market.

What is the cause of the mere exposure effect?

Fechner was the author of the first known research carried out on this phenomenon. This German psychologist, father of current psychophysical theories, offers an explanation for the effect that concerns us today. People tend to react with a certain fear or anxiety when faced with new elements..

However, This “phobia of the new” fades as we repeatedly expose ourselves to those stimuli.. This natural tendency to be suspicious of the unknown even becomes a pleasant feeling of familiarity the more contact we have with the element.

However, we must take into account that, If repeated exposure to the stimulus occurs in excess, we can become bored.. Satiety is a condition that limits the impact of this effect. If we eat the same thing every day, we end up hating it: if we watch the same movie every day it ends up being boring.

Therefore, At the base of many of our preferences is this principle of familiarity, even if we are not aware of it.. Regardless of our greater or lesser taste for adventure and risk, several of the decisions we make daily are mediated by this effect.

The objects we acquire, the places we frequent, and the people we like can be affected by this principle. For this reason, it is convenient or, at least interesting, to become aware of its influence on our mind.

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