Familiarity Principle of Attraction

The familiarity principle of attraction refers to the idea that objects and people seen repeatedly are subsequently rated more positively than are those seen less frequently. This principle stems from research on the mere exposure effect, which predicts that repeated exposure to neutrally valenced objects increases attitudes, or evaluations, of those objects. Early studies on the mere exposure effect varied the exposure frequency of nonsense syllables and Chinese characters (to non-Chinese fluent samples) and showed that those seen more frequently were rated more favorably. These effects seem to generalize even to non-humans; rats have been shown to prefer music that they were raised with to novel music.

Subsequent research has investigated the effect of increased exposure on social stimuli. For example, hearing a rumor repeatedly can lead one to believe that the rumor is true. When it comes to interacting with people who have been seen frequently, there are a wide range of effects. For example, people tend to agree with persuasive arguments from individuals they are familiar with, compared with that same argument from those they were not previously exposed to. Likewise, people tend to comply with the requests of those they are familiar with. At the foundation of these effects is the fact that we like those that we have seen repeatedly. Laboratory studies have shown that individuals prefer to interact with those with whom they have had more previous exposure. In addition, faces presented more frequently are rated as more attractive.

These findings generalize beyond the laboratory as well. In a clever study, researchers planted four female confederates in a college class (i.e., they posed as students). The confederates were pretested to be of similar physical attractiveness, and their class attendance was varied during the semester. At the end of the term, there was a strong association between students' ratings of the confederates and their class attendance (i.e., familiarity); the confederate who came to class most frequently was rated as the most attractive and likeable, and the one who never came to class was rated lowest on these dimensions.

The effect of familiarity can even be seen in individuals' preferences for pictures of themselves compared with their friends' preferences. Because we typically see ourselves “backward” (i.e., in the mirror), we tend to prefer our own images if reversed. However, our friends typically see us the “right way,” and they will prefer our non-reversed picture. Furthermore, when rating the attractiveness of opposite-sex others, participants prefer faces of others that look similar to themselves. Using computerized image-morphing, participants were shown a range of faces, and unbeknownst to them, some included their own face transformed into an opposite-sex target; these were the faces that received the highest attractiveness ratings.

In addition to the implications for liking in interpersonal relationships and attraction, the familiarity principle has been applied extensively in consumer and political contexts. According to this perspective, one rationale for the frequency and effectiveness of advertising is that viewers should prefer products and political candidates that they have seen more often.

Many potential mechanisms underlying the mere exposure effect have been investigated. One particular process that has received support is that familiarity involves classical conditioning in situations absent of aversive events. It is possible that the lack of aversive stimuli elicits a positive response, which through subsequent trials (i.e., exposure) becomes paired with the person or target repeatedly presented, yielding a preference for those objects or people that are familiar. In addition, the principle of familiarity makes sense from an evolutionary perspective; those objects that are seen often are viewed as safe and pleasant, whereas unfamiliar things are unknown and may promote uncertainty. A preference for familiar [Page 597]objects would have led individuals to gravitate toward safe and predictable situations and away from the unfamiliar, thus facilitating survival and reproduction. Therefore, according to this perspective, selective pressures would have reinforced the preference for familiar stimuli within ancestral populations.

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