Mere Exposure Effect

Have you ever heard a song and sort of really hated it ? Then eventually it ends up growing on you ? Like those scenes in that one movie where her birthday card sings “I’ve got a pocket full of sunshine.” Then congratulations, you have already experienced the mere exposure effect !

What is the mere exposure effect ?

In a nutshell, this phenomenon just means the more that you see of hear something, the more you grow to like it. We gravitate towards things that are familiar to us. It’s pretty much a numbers game.

Social Psych Online gives this information about a study they thought was interesting: “One of my favorite demonstrations of this effect comes from a 1992 study. The researchers arranged for four different women (of similar appearance) to attend a college class a certain number of times throughout the semester. One of these women didn’t actually attend at all, one attended five times, one attended ten times, and the last woman attended fifteen times. These women didn’t interact with the students at all; they just sat in on the lecture. At the end of the semester, the students in the class saw pictures of each of the women and rated them on several scales like physical attractiveness. Despite never having interacted with these women, the students showed a clear mere exposure effect. That is, they evaluated the woman who they had…