Indirect and Subliminal "Mere Exposure" Effect: Implicit Aspect of Attitude Formation

Abstract

The experiments reported in this article fall within the scope of the general question of implicit attitude formation. Two studies investigate the extent to which mere exposure effects emerge in implicit stimulus exposure situations. In both experiments, half of the participants were directly and repeatedly exposed to 2 complex visual patterns, which were identified as standards, and the other half were indirectly exposed to these standards in a distorted form. The exposure duration was either supraliminal or subliminal. The results indicate that, in each implicit exposure situation, a mere exposure effect emerged. In the most implicit condition, where indirect exposure and subliminal presentation were combined, participants still generated positive attitudes toward the standards. In the explicit exposure situation (supraliminal and direct exposure), no significant mere exposure effect occurred. These results are discussed in the context of Bornstein and D’Agostino’s model (1994).