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Eliminating the mere exposure effect through changes in context between exposure and test

The present study examined the extent to which increased liking of exposed stimuli—the mere exposure effect—is dependent on experiencing the stimuli in the same context in exposure and on test. Participants were repeatedly exposed to pairs of cues (nonsense words) and target stimuli (faces and shapes), and were asked to rate the pleasantness of the target stimuli in a subsequent test phase. Familiar targets were preferred to novel targets—a mere exposure effect was obtained. This preference for familiar targets was disrupted, however, when the cue–target pairings were rearranged between exposure and test, or a novel cue was introduced at test. Overall, the study suggests that the context of exposure and test moderates the mere exposure effect. Liking of stimuli due to exposure is specific to the context of exposure and does not apply to new or familiar but different contexts.