| The mere exposure effect, introduced by Zajonc in 1968, is a phenomenon whereby individuals report greater liking for stimuli that they have perceived before relative to novel stimuli. Although this finding has been replicated over two hundred times, there are few reports about whether personality or physiological variables are related to the effect. Moreover, there is some skepticism about whether participants' reports of liking are truly affective in nature. In this study, one group of participants viewed faces subliminally and another viewed faces supraliminally. At test, participants were asked to rate previously presented and novel stimuli on a dislike-like scale. Surprisingly, the subliminal group showed a reverse mere exposure effect. That, is, participants rated novel faces as more likable than previously presented faces. The supraliminal group showed no preference. Mere exposure elicited physiological changes in female but not male participants. In addition, mere exposure effects were related to other variables such as ability to decode facial expressions but not to recognition memory for faces. The findings are discussed in light of recent theoretical debates and avenues for further research are suggested. |
