TOEFL Speaking Task 3

In psychology, the 'mere exposure effect' refers to the tendency for individuals to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. This effect occurs even when the initial exposure is subliminal or unnoticed. Researchers have found that repeated exposure to a stimulus—such as a sound, image, or person—increases positive feelings toward it, regardless of conscious awareness. The effect is robust across various contexts, from marketing to social interactions, and is considered a fundamental mechanism in attitude formation.

Professor: Let me give you a real-world example to illustrate this. In a study, researchers showed participants a series of abstract geometric shapes on a screen so quickly that they couldn’t consciously recognize them. Later, when asked to rate how much they liked each shape, participants consistently gave higher ratings to the shapes they had seen before, even though they had no memory of seeing them. This happened purely because of repeated exposure, even at a subliminal level. Another example: a radio station played a relatively unknown song many times over several weeks. By the end, listeners reported liking the song more, not because they analyzed its quality, but simply because they had heard it frequently. So, the mere exposure effect explains why familiarity breeds liking, not contempt.