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cognition
You like things more simply because you have seen them.
The mere exposure effect is the tendency to develop a preference for stimuli merely because you are familiar with them.
Participants showed increased liking for abstract shapes or nonsense words after being exposed to them repeatedly, even when they could not consciously remember seeing those specific items before.
Your familiarity is often mistaken for quality.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Robert Zajonc (1968)
- What the check found
- The definition aligns with the established consensus on the mere-exposure effect, and Robert Zajonc's 1968 paper is the widely accepted foundational source for this concept.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.