Robert Zajonc: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Robert Zajonc, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

You like things more simply because you've seen them before
Robert Zajonc showed that repeated exposure to a stimulus — a face, a shape, a nonsense word — reliably increases how much people like it, even when they don't consciously recognis…
— Robert Zajonc, Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure
Just seeing something repeatedly makes you like it more, with no new information needed
In the 1960s, psychologist Robert Zajonc showed that people rated nonsense words, faces and Chinese characters more favourably simply because they had seen them before. The mere-ex…
— Robert Zajonc, Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure

Five ideas worth knowing, every week