Is it true that the more often we see a person, the prettier we find them? Unbelievable! This is the so-called exposure-effect.
Try to imagine this: there are four girls in the lecture hall. They are more or less similar, appearance-wise. None of them are drop-dead gorgeous, neither is anyone of them so ugly that you can't look at her a second longer. The first one would not step into the lecture hall unless the seminar is compulsory, the second one seldom comes, the third one comes regularly and the fourth attends every single class.
You may have little contact with them. For example, you may have asked them to move over in order to let you sit down or they may have held the door for you. However, you can hardly recall these memories and cannot be friend with them. If I show you their pictures one day and ask who you think is the prettiest, you will probably answer the girl who comes to the class every time. This is the answer of most people.
In 1992, Richard Moreland and Scott Beach conducted a similar experiment. The boys in class were asked to rate the girls who attended the lectures with different frequencies. The girl who attended most lectures was perceived as most attractive, intelligent and easy-going.
So the more frequent we see this person, the nicer we would think they are. This seems to make sense when we ask ourselves why best friends usually do not live that far away from each other and how lovers claim their love grows day by day. This so-called mere exposure effect is discovered by Robert Zajonc. He presented these interesting facts while he was still studying, but instead of women, he used Chinese characters!
Some 200 more experiments were then conducted and the results are always the same. Weird how our brain works, isn't it?
Of course reality is somewhat different from a science lab and there are many factors which influence how we judge a person - whether we like him or her, whether we think he or she is beautiful. Say if I ask you to listen to your favourite song twice a day for two months, you would know that the theory doesn't always apply. There are things that we gradually grow sick of, no matter how we are fond of it. Constant bombardment does not always give positive results.
If that girl who sits next to you in the lecture hall right at the beginning is nothing close to being normal, or even she makes you want to run immediately. Then I think seeing her everyday will never help. - 30535
Try to imagine this: there are four girls in the lecture hall. They are more or less similar, appearance-wise. None of them are drop-dead gorgeous, neither is anyone of them so ugly that you can't look at her a second longer. The first one would not step into the lecture hall unless the seminar is compulsory, the second one seldom comes, the third one comes regularly and the fourth attends every single class.
You may have little contact with them. For example, you may have asked them to move over in order to let you sit down or they may have held the door for you. However, you can hardly recall these memories and cannot be friend with them. If I show you their pictures one day and ask who you think is the prettiest, you will probably answer the girl who comes to the class every time. This is the answer of most people.
In 1992, Richard Moreland and Scott Beach conducted a similar experiment. The boys in class were asked to rate the girls who attended the lectures with different frequencies. The girl who attended most lectures was perceived as most attractive, intelligent and easy-going.
So the more frequent we see this person, the nicer we would think they are. This seems to make sense when we ask ourselves why best friends usually do not live that far away from each other and how lovers claim their love grows day by day. This so-called mere exposure effect is discovered by Robert Zajonc. He presented these interesting facts while he was still studying, but instead of women, he used Chinese characters!
Some 200 more experiments were then conducted and the results are always the same. Weird how our brain works, isn't it?
Of course reality is somewhat different from a science lab and there are many factors which influence how we judge a person - whether we like him or her, whether we think he or she is beautiful. Say if I ask you to listen to your favourite song twice a day for two months, you would know that the theory doesn't always apply. There are things that we gradually grow sick of, no matter how we are fond of it. Constant bombardment does not always give positive results.
If that girl who sits next to you in the lecture hall right at the beginning is nothing close to being normal, or even she makes you want to run immediately. Then I think seeing her everyday will never help. - 30535
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