Attitudinal effects of “mere exposure”: A reevaluation

Abstract

Zajonc has proposed that repeated “mere exposure” of a stimulus is a sufficient condition for enhancing the attractiveness of this stimulus. And Harrison has suggested a theory to explain the relationship between repeated “mere exposure” and attractiveness. However, while this area appears complex, a simple and parsimonious explanation based on classical conditioning can apparently account for the obtained data. This explanation assumes only that the contexts within which “mere exposure” occurs are not affectively neutral, but rather positively evaluated. Thus, the data gathered in “mere exposure” studies may indicate only that the positive affect which characterizes the exposure context is increasingly transferred to the exposed stimulus as the number of trials (exposures) increases. Two experiments are presented in support of this general argument. In the first, the relationship between exposure frequency and attraction is shown to be stronger for Ss who find the experimental context relatively attractive; in the second, intentionally created positive contexts are shown to provide positive relationships between familiarity and affect, while intentionally created negative contexts are shown to provide negative relationships between these variables.