Eliminating the mere exposure effect through changes in context between exposure and test

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which increased liking of exposed stimuli—the mere exposure effect—is dependent on experiencing the stimuli in the same context in exposure and on test. Participants were repeatedly exposed to pairs of cues (nonsense words) and target stimuli (faces and shapes), and were asked to rate the pleasantness of the target stimuli in a subsequent test phase. Familiar targets were preferred to novel targets—a mere exposure effect was obtained. This preference for familiar targets was disrupted, however, when the cue–target pairings were rearranged between exposure and test, or a novel cue was introduced at test. Overall, the study suggests that the context of exposure and test moderates the mere exposure effect. Liking of stimuli due to exposure is specific to the context of exposure and does not apply to new or familiar but different contexts.

Keywords:

• Mere exposure
• Familiarity
• Novelty
• Fluency
• Affect
• Context

Notes

¹ An analysis of the first half of test trials versus the second half of test trials was conducted across all experiments. In Experiment 1, across all test trial types, higher ratings were given for the first half of test trials compared to the second half of test trials, F(1, 24)=7.75, MSE=75.27, p=.01, d=0.80, however this effect was not reliable for Experiments 2–5, highest F(1, 29)=3.33, MSE=107.17, p=.08, d=0.16. More importantly, the test trial order did not interact (first or second order) with any of the experimental factors for Experiments 1–5, highest F(1, 23)=3.57, MSE=73.51, p=.07, d=0.56.

² We attempted to make the relationships between components more and less salient by manipulating the timing of the target stimulus with respect to the cue. Following Whittlesea and Williams (2001), we hypothesised that a delay between the presentation of cue and the target would allow participants to generate an expectation of the target, thus rendering the target salient. However simultaneous presentation of the cue and target would not allow the participants to generate an expectation of the target upon viewing the cue (because the target would already be visible). No support for this hypothesis was found; the timing of the target stimulus had no reliable effect on pleasantness.