托福口语 Task 3

The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where individuals develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. This effect occurs even when the initial exposure is subliminal or without conscious awareness. Research suggests that repeated exposure to a stimulus, such as a sound, image, or person, increases positive feelings toward it, regardless of whether the exposure was positive or negative. The effect is powerful because familiarity breeds comfort, which can influence decision-making in areas like advertising, social interactions, and personal preferences.

Professor: Now, let me give you an example from a study I conducted a few years ago. I wanted to test the mere exposure effect with music. I played a set of unfamiliar, obscure songs to a group of students. I played some songs only once, and others I played five times, but I did this very quickly, in the background, while they were doing other tasks. They weren’t really paying attention to the music. Later, I asked them to rate how much they liked each song. Interestingly, the songs they heard five times were rated significantly higher than those heard only once. When I asked why, they couldn’t even remember hearing the songs before—they just said the songs felt more ‘familiar’ and ‘comfortable.’ So even though they had no conscious memory, the repeated exposure made them prefer those songs.