Mere exposure effect

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In psychology, the mere exposure effect is used to describe the finding that just the repeated perception of a thing initially assessed neutrally results in a more positive assessment.

For example, familiarity with a person makes them appear more attractive and personable. The mere exposure effect does not occur if the evaluation was negative at the first contact; in this case, repetitive performance increases the aversion.

The effect also occurs with subliminal perception, that is, it does not matter whether the person is aware of the contact or not.

He was discovered in 1968 by Robert Zajonc . Synonymous is effect of mere contact .

Examples

  • The more contact people have (even by chance), the more likely they are to become friends. This was also shown by a study by Leon Festinger , Stanley Schachter and Kurt Back (1950) at MIT , who were able to show a relationship between the spatial arrangement of dorm rooms and the friendships of their residents.
  • In the experiment by Moreland and Beach (1992) confidants (initiated helpers of the investigator) participated in 0 ( control group ) to 15 appointments of a university seminar. The other seminar participants then rated the attractiveness of their personality. There was a linear relationship between the number of participants and sympathy.
  • If chicken eggs are regularly exposed to a specific sound, this sound leads to a reduction in stress in the hatched chicks.

Theoretical background

Zajonc's own explanation of the effect is evolutionary psychological . He writes: “The consequences of repeated performance benefit the organism in its relationship to the immediate animate and inanimate environment. They allow the organism to differentiate between safe and dangerous things and biotopes, and they form the most primitive basis for social bonds. Therefore, they form the basis for social organization and cohesion - the basic sources of psychological and social stability. ”In this sense, the effect is based at least in part on learning a safety stimulus in the sense of classical conditioning .

In addition, familiarity leads to increased stimulus processing fluidity, ie. H. processing becomes faster, easier and more efficient. Fluid processing is accompanied by positive affect, i.e. a slightly good feeling, which seems to lead to a more positive evaluation of the frequently processed stimulus.

In addition, it appears that it is not the stimulus itself that creates the mere exposure effect, but the motor representations that are also activated with the stimulus.

Mere exposure effects are influenced by the way the stimuli are presented. For example, the number of presentations of the stimulus, the duration and the sequence increase the effect or the positivity of the assessment.

Application in marketing

In marketing, this effect leads to the realization that, for example, short, multiple repetitions of a product advertisement in the medium term lead to an advertised product or service being perceived more positively by the consumer (even unconsciously).

Application in theories of partner choice

The theory that multiple encounters with a person of the preferred gender increases the likelihood that they will be found attractive complements approaches based on the influence of spatial proximity and the influence of general similarity of interests. Both closeness and similarity in interests lead to increased encounters.

See also

literature

  • Robert Zajonc : Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1968, 9, 2, 1-27.
  • RF Bornstein: Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987 . Psychological Bulletin, 1989, 106, 265-289.
  • X. Fang, S. Singh, R. AhluWalia: An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect . Journal of Consumer Research, 2007, 34, 97-103.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moreland & Zajonc (1982): Exposure effects in person perception: Familiarity, similarity, and attraction . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, pp. 395-415
  2. ↑ Rita Faullant: Psychological determinants of customer satisfaction. The influence of emotions and personality . Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-8350-0668-1
  3. ^ Daniel Kahneman : Thinking, fast and slow , Allen Lane Paperback, ISBN 978-1-846-14606-0 , p. 67
  4. ^ Berscheid & Reis (1998). Attraction and close relationships . In: Gilbert, Fiske & Lindzey (eds.): The handbook of social psychology . New York: McGraw-Hill
  5. ^ Moreland & Beach (1992): Exposure effects in the classroom: The development of affinity among students . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28, pp. 255-276
  6. ↑ DW Rajecki: Effects of Prenatal Exposure to auditory or visual stimulation on Postnatal Distress vocalization in Chicks . Behavioral Biology 11, 1974, pp. 525-536
  7. ↑ in the original: "The consequences of repeated exposure benefit the organism in its relations to the immediate animate and inanimate environment. They allow the organism to distinguish objects and habitats that are safe from those that are not, and they are the most primitive basis of social attachments. Therefore, they form the basis for social organization and cohesion - the basic sources of psychological and social stability ". Quoted from: Daniel Kahneman : Thinking, fast and slow , Allen Lane Paperback, ISBN 978-1-846-14606-0 , p. 67
  8. ↑ R. Reber, P. Winkielman, N. Black: Effects of perceptual fluency on affective Judgments . Psychological Science, 9 , 1998, 45-48
  9. ^ R. Reber, P. Wurtz, TD Zimmermann: Exploring "fringe" consciousness: The subjective experience of perceptual fluency and its objective bases . Consciousness and Cognition, 13 , 2004, 47-60
  10. ↑ S. Topolinski, Fritz Strack : Motormouth: Mere Exposure Depends on Stimulus-Specific Motor Simulations . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2009, 35 (2), 423-433.