23 September
To know me is to like me.
- Roger Ebert
Today's term from psychology is the Mere-Exposure Effect.
People tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.
This is the mere-exposure effect, also called the exposure effect or the familiarity principle. The effect has been demonstrated with many kinds of things, including words, Chinese characters, paintings, pictures of faces, geometric figures, sounds, and even people.
In studies of interpersonal attraction, the more often a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person appears to be. This phenomenon is interesting because it's not logical. Just because we see a stranger occasionally does not make them any more trustworthy. Yet, we might feel like they should be more trustworthy because we “know” them. For example, even if he has never met either of them, a person is more likely to feel an affinity with someone he passes on the street occasionally than for a complete stranger.
The Mere-Exposure Effect can be seen most easily in advertising and politics where the constant repetition of a name, a logo, or a brand can make us more disposed to see a product or a politician in a positive light. Or the constant repetition of a song can get us to like it.
In short, the Mere-Exposure Effect is a manifestation of the more deep seated instinct in humans to interpret familiarity with safety and security.