Abstract
The mere exposure effect (MEE) refers to increased liking for a stimulus that follows repeated, unreinforced exposure to that stimulus. There have been more than 400 published studies examining the MEE, which occurs for a broad array of stimuli (e.g., drawings, photographs, musical selections, real words, nonsense words, ideographs) under a variety of laboratory and real-world conditions. This chapter reviews empirical literature bearing on the MEE, demonstrating that: (1) MEEs have numerous real-world implications, helping explain voting behavior, advertising effects, preferences for different types of music and art, and attitudes toward people and objects encountered in everyday life; (2) boredom is a limiting condition on the MEE, as liking ratings tend to decrease after a large number of stimulus exposures; (3) stimulus awareness inhibits the MEE, with stronger effects are produced by stimuli perceived without awareness than those that are consciously recognized; and (4) it appears that the MEE is a product of two processes: A rapid, reflexive affective response followed by more controlled, deliberate cognitive processing of stimulus content.