The Mere Exposure Effect

The Mere Exposure Effect is part of the whole entire idea that we are more likely to be attracted/like someone/something that we have seen and become familiar with. Both proximity and exposure are basic and necessary factors for attraction.

Robert Zajonc did a series of experiments, where they found that the more exposure to a novel stimulus people had, the more the people came to like the novel stimulus. This was true for a foreign word, a geometric form, and even a human face. This observation was later coined the mere exposure effect and has been observed in more than 200 experiments since then (Zajonc, 1968; Bornstein, 1989).

People do not even have to aware of the exposure for the mere exposure effect to occur. In a typical study, participants are shown pictures of several different stimuli, for only one to five milliseconds, making it impossible for the participant to be register awareness and even too quick for the participants to realize that different stimuli that are flashed are flashed more often than others. After the exposure, participants are then shown each of the stimuli and as two questions: (1) Do you like it? (2) Have you seen it before? As expected the more the stimuli that were frequently shown, were the ones people liked more, even though when asked if they’ve seen it before they said no. These results demonstrated that the not only is the mere exposure effect can influence us without us being aware, but the effect is strong under those conditions (Kuntz-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980; Bornstein & D’Agostino, 1992; Zajonc, 2001).

Personal Example: Pottery

                I am a proctor at the Studio Arts Building and every now and again, so many ceramic students make so much pottery that they either have too much or simply forget about certain pieces. So the left over pieces get thrown away and sometimes the proctors can pick certain pieces that they like if the student doesn’t want that piece anymore. 

                So last semester, I was going through the pottery and I absolutely loved several pieces. They were just as nice as the others, but for some odd reasons I couldn’t help, but like these pieces more than the rest. I learned that the student had heavily based most of her pottery designs off her sketches and paintings she did for painting/draw classes last year. I also later learned that, that student was my old roommate from last year. I use to see her designs, drawing, sketches, and doodles all the time. I would see them out of the corner my eye, maybe just looking over at her side of the room, or just glancing at her sketchbook that was opened on her desk.

I don’t recall any specific designs or drawings and before I knew the pieces were my old roommates’, I would have sworn I had not seen anything like the pottery pieces I had picked out.

I feel like I was exposed to my old roommates designs or at least her style all of last year, but never registered it consciously, but due the exposure I came to like her pottery, more than the other pottery pieces. 

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References

Bornstein, R. F. (1989). Exposure and affect: Overview and metaanalysis of research, 1968-1987. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 265-289.

Kuntz-Wilson, W., & Zajonc, R. B. (1980).Affective discrimination of stimuli that cannot be recognized. Science, 207, 556-558.

Bornstein, R. F., & D’Agostino, P. R. (1992).Stimulus recognition and the me4e exposure effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 545-552.

Zajonc, R. B. (1968).Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monograph Supplement, 9(2), 1-27.

Zajonc, R. B. (2001). Mere exposure: A gateway to the subliminal. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 224-228.