{"id":62897,"date":"2022-04-04T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=62897"},"modified":"2022-04-06T13:42:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T17:42:31","slug":"the-mere-exposure-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-mere-exposure-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mere Exposure Effect: Why We Like Familiarity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the mere exposure effect<\/a>? Why do we like things that are familiar and dislike what’s unfamiliar? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mere exposure effect occurs when we start to like things just because we\u2019ve been exposed to them before. It applies to everything from the people we interact with to that song that keeps playing on the radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s why we like the familiar and try to stay from the unfamiliar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Allure of Familiarity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we like things just because they\u2019re familiar and dislike things that are unfamiliar. We don\u2019t like what we don\u2019t know. Sometimes we taste, hear, or watch something different and the unconscious mind<\/a> automatically registers it as bad. This can be partly explained by what is known as the “mere exposure effect.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladwell gives the example of television classics All in the Family <\/em>and The Mary Tyler Moore Show<\/em>, which almost didn\u2019t make it to the air because the hundreds of viewers in market testing hated them. They thought that Family<\/em>\u2019s Archie Bunker was too abrasive and that career-woman Mary was a \u201closer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These sitcoms became two of the most successful in history. Were the opinions of initial viewers just different than those of the general public? Probably not. Viewers thought that they hated these shows, but really they were just shocked by them.<\/strong> Once they got used to them, they realized that they actually enjoyed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mere exposure effect is surprisingly robust\u2014it\u2019s been observed across cultures, for stimuli that are both subliminally presented and consciously processed, and even prenatally (for example, newborn babies show a preference for voices<\/a>, stories<\/a>, and music<\/a> that they heard frequently while in utero). The flip side of this effect, of course, is that the less exposure we\u2019ve had to something, the less<\/em> likely we are to respond positively to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the mere exposure effect? Why do we like things that are familiar and dislike what’s unfamiliar? The mere exposure effect occurs when we start to like things just because we\u2019ve been exposed to them before. It applies to everything from the people we interact with to that song that keeps playing on the radio. Here’s why we like the familiar and try to stay from the unfamiliar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-62897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-blink","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mere Exposure Effect: Why We Like Familiarity - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do we like things that are familiar and dislike what's unfamiliar? This can be partly explained by the mere exposure effect. 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