Person
Robert Zajonc
Researcher — mere exposure effect (1960s)
Polish-American psychologist credited with the original 1960s mere-exposure-effect study using Chinese characters shown to American participants (see Mere Exposure Effect Original Study). Episode 15 transcribes his name as "Robert Xiong"; Episode 196 explicitly names him "a Polish psychologist called Robert Zajonc" while describing his research program more broadly, confirming the Episode 15 transcription was a mis-hearing — corrected here (page renamed from "Robert Xiong") per the project's standing practice for corroborated name errors.
Episode 196 adds a second, separate Zajonc study: two outdoor ads containing unfamiliar Turkish words were displayed at high-footfall locations on the University of Michigan campus for several weeks. Four weeks later, 1,100 students rated 12 unfamiliar words (including the two from the ads) for likability. No student consciously recognized any of the words, but the majority preferred the two words they'd been exposed to via the ads — exposure shifted preference even without any conscious recognition at all (see Zajonc Turkish-Words Michigan Ad-Exposure Study).
Discussed in
- Episode 15 — 15- What VR reveals about a consumer-s mind
- Episode 119 — The persuasive effect of mere exposure (re-citation of the 1968 Chinese-characters study)
- Episode 196 — 196-7-cognitive-biases-that-might-ruin-your-life