People grew to like random made-up words simply by seeing them more often, and the same effect may shape who and what you like

Why does a song you disliked on first listen start to grow on you? Why do people often prefer the version of their face they see in the mirror over the one in photos? Psychologists have a name for part of the answer, and it dates back to a set of experiments with nonsense words and unfamiliar symbols.

In 1968, psychologist Robert Zajonc published a series of studies in which people were shown made-up words, Chinese-like characters or photos of faces, some only once and others many times. Afterward, they were asked to guess how positive each one was, or how much they liked it. The more often people had seen something, the more they tended to like it, even though nothing about it had changed.

Zajonc called this the mere exposure effect. The word mere matters. People did not need to learn anything, interact with the item or receive any reward. Simple repetition was enough to make something feel more pleasant.

Decades of follow-up work have confirmed the effect. A review of more than 200 experiments by Robert Bornstein in 1989 found that it appeared reliably across many kinds of stimuli. It was often strongest when people saw items briefly, or even too quickly to consciously recognize them, and it tended to weaken when exposures became very numerous, when familiarity can tip into boredom.

One popular explanation is that familiar things are easier for the brain to process, and that ease feels good. We may then mistake that feeling of fluency for genuine liking. Another view is that, over evolutionary time, things we had encountered before without harm were safer bets than unfamiliar ones.

The effect helps explain why repeated advertising can work even when people do not consciously pay attention, why we often feel drawn to people we see regularly in a class or office, and why the mirror version of our face, the one we see every day, can look better to us than a photo.

It also has limits. Repeated exposure does not reliably make people like something they found unpleasant from the start, and in some cases it can make dislike stronger. Familiarity smooths the way, but it does not overwrite a strong first reaction.

In practical terms, the finding is a reminder that some of our preferences are less deliberate than they feel. A song, a brand or even a neighbor may seem better simply because they have become part of our daily landscape. Giving something new a few more chances, before deciding you dislike it, is consistent with what this research suggests.

Sources

Zajonc RB. “Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1968.
DOI: 10.1037/h0025848

Bornstein RF. “Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987.” Psychological Bulletin, 1989.
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.106.2.265