The Mere Exposure-Effect explains that repeated exposure to something leads to a more positive feeling about it. The more often we see something, the more we like it.
But why do we do this?
Psychologist Ziva Kunda once commented on how:
“The mere repeated exposure to an object suffices to increase one’s liking for it.”
A simple example is how we’re often more likely to feel a greater affinity towards someone we occasionally pass on the street, than we do towards a complete stranger. Of course, this appears to be quite irrational as it has little basis in logic. Just because we see a stranger occasionally doesn’t make them any more trustworthy than a random person we’ve never seen before… We just feel that they are because they feel familiar!
The most well-known research on the subject was conducted by the American social psychologist, Robert Zajonc in the 1960s. Zajonc conducted four experiments, each of which provided strong support for the hypothesis that repeated exposure to a stimulus object enhances an individual’s attitude toward it.
For example, in one experiment, participants saw nonsense symbols that resembled Chinese characters. Each character was shown from 0–25 times. The participants were then asked to rate how they felt about each character. Eleven out of 12 times, the character was preferred more when it was in the high frequency category and seen more often.
There are two key mechanisms that are widely thought to explain this effect:
- Apprehension: We’ve evolved to be wary of things we haven’t seen before, but when we see something more often, we grow to like it
- Fluency: The more you see something, the easier it is to process
Furthermore, a new research paper, due to be published later this year 2021, suggests that there may be a third explanation: the more we see something, the more it stands out to us – and it is this that increases peoples’ evaluations.
The Mere Exposure Effect Illustrated
Psychologist, Sheena Iyengar highlights how:
“The mere exposure effect explains many facets of our lives, such as why it’s so hard to find someone who can prepare our childhood favourites like Mom did, and it also holds when we see the latest fashion trends prominently featured in stores, catalogues, and finally on people we know.”[1]
Coca Cola has made good use of the Mere-Exposure Effect as they’re a very familiar brand to most. From the start they focused on distribution and now they really are everywhere. This has made them not only always available but also globally familiar and, as a result, the preferred soft drink option. In 2014, Coke held a 42% market share in the carbonated beverage industry, in comparison to Pepsi’s 30%.
These days product placements in movies have become one of the most popular methods to subtly promote a product.
But can product placement really change people’s attitude towards a brand?
A 2013 study with teenagers aged 14 to 16 found that those exposed to a brand placed within a film clearly preferred that brand to others they did not see during the video.
Seeing a brand several times in the movie had an immediate impact on student’s attitude towards that brand.[2] With additional exposure to the brand, the effect would become even stronger! Moreover, the effect existed regardless of the type of product and whether the brand was perceived consciously.
So what does this all mean?
In research, exploring how familiar consumers feel with a brand and how they have been exposed to it in different ways can be revealing. For marketers, we can also look at how to build a far reaching, multi-media campaign so that people are exposed to a brand across multiple channels.
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[1] Iyengar, S. “The Art of Choosing”, 2011, Abacus
[2] Ruggieri, S., & Boca, S. (2013). At the roots of product placement: The mere exposure effect. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 246-258.
