TOEFL 말하기 Task 3

Mere Exposure Effect refers to the psychological phenomenon where individuals develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. In other words, repeated exposure to a stimulus—whether it's a person, a word, or an object—increases our liking of it, even if we are not consciously aware of having seen it before. This effect occurs across various sensory modalities and has been demonstrated in numerous studies, showing that familiarity breeds liking rather than contempt.

Professor: So, let me give you a classic example from a study. Researchers showed participants a series of random geometric shapes, like polygons, on a screen. Each shape was flashed very quickly, so quickly that participants couldn't consciously recognize what they saw. Some shapes appeared more frequently than others. Later, the researchers showed the participants all the shapes again, this time at a normal speed, and asked them to rate how much they liked each shape. The results were striking: shapes that had been shown more frequently during the quick-flash phase were rated as more likable, even though participants had no idea they had seen them before. This demonstrates the mere exposure effect—familiarity, even unnoticed, led to increased preference.