Have you ever heard music and thought, what a bad song? Then, over the months, heard it more frequently and before you knew it, could not get it out of your head. The song would not have changed in any way, but it grew in appeal. What changed?
This is the mere-exposure effect, a phenomenon studied by Robert Zajonc—what I like to call the Zajonc effect. Robert Zajonc is celebrated in some quarters as a complete psychologist. His work spans over four decades of contributions to social psychology, largely at the University of Michigan and later at Stanford University. He was born in 1923 in Poland. Germany invaded Poland when he was 16 years old. He and his parents fled to Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, where a bomb struck their home. Both his parents died.
He studied at an underground University, now orphaned. There, he was captured and sent to a labour camp, where he escaped. He was recaptured and sent to a political prison in France. Again, he escaped and joined the French army. After the War, he moved to America, where he applied to study psychology at the University of Michigan. He completed his PhD and became a professor for the next four decades.
His major contribution to psychology is the mere-exposure effect: the observation that we develop a liking for the thing we are frequently exposed to. Among his numerous experiments was exposing fertilised chicken eggs to a tone (a sound). It was found that after hatching, the chicks preferred that sound over those that were not exposed to it. The theory has since found expressions in many areas. For example, the brand advertisers know that frequent exposure develops preference. In other words, the product does not have to be great—it merely needs exposure, and it is this exposure that, in some sense, makes it desirable.
When you saw that car and thought, what an ugly car, and then saw it more frequently and eventually liked it, you were under the spell of the mere-exposure effect. The same applies to the song you disliked but eventually could not keep out of your head. Also, think about the influencer who is constantly on your social media feed, whom you eventually follow and share. Or the famous incompetent person who everybody seems to listen to for reasons you do not understand. These are all examples of the mere-exposure effect.
How will you apply it in your work?
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