The effect of stimulus discriminability on the mere exposure effect: Why more variability in the design of cigarette health warnings is needed.

Aimers, N; Thurgood, CM; Lindgaard, G

The effect of stimulus discriminability on the mere exposure effect: Why more variability in the design of cigarette health warnings is needed.

Aimers, N Thurgood, CM

Lindgaard, G

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Publisher:: International Ergonomics Association.
Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: The Proceedings of the 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. Melbourne, 9-14 August, 2015, 2015, pp. 1 - 8
Issue Date:: 2015

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Aimers, N	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Thurgood, CM https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-4423	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Lindgaard, G	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Lindgaard, G	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Moore, D	en_US
dc.date	2015-08-09	en_US
dc.date.issued	2015	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	The Proceedings of the 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. Melbourne, 9-14 August, 2015, 2015, pp. 1 - 8	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36912
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36936
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36910
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36935
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36911
dc.description.abstract	The mere exposure effect refers to the observation that repeated, unreinforced exposure to a stimulus increases affective evaluations of that stimulus. An abundance of previous mere exposure research has utilised neutral, meaningless stimuli, with few studies using emotional stimuli. However, it is highly plausible that the stimuli used in these studies were not truly emotional. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of repeated exposure on liking ratings of images which had inherent emotional properties, namely valence and arousal. Three experiments took place. Experiment 1 used neutral yet meaningful images to obtain a baseline but surprisingly, no significant mere exposure effect was found. Experiment 2 then used images differing in valence and arousal in which a significant effect was found for the negative high arousal images only. Guided by these findings, Experiment 3 then used negative high arousal images that have greater societal application, namely cigarette health warning images. Strikingly, a significant mere exposure effect was again found. It is argued that stimulus discriminability played a vital role in the occurrence of the mere exposure effect, such that a significant effect was found only when the stimuli were of similar content to one another. Recommendations were made that the design of cigarette health warnings need to have more variability in the content that is depicted to prevent increases in affective evaluations from occurring.	en_US
dc.publisher	International Ergonomics Association.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	The Proceedings of the 19th Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. Melbourne, 9-14 August, 2015	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association	en_US
dc.title	The effect of stimulus discriminability on the mere exposure effect: Why more variability in the design of cigarette health warnings is needed.	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.location.activity	Melbourne, Australia	en_US
utslib.for	1203 Design Practice and Management	en_US
dc.location.activity	Melbourne, Australia
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - DIRC - Design Innovation Research Centre
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.finish-date	2015-08-14	en_US
pubs.start-date	2015-08-09	en_US

Abstract:

The mere exposure effect refers to the observation that repeated, unreinforced exposure to a stimulus increases affective evaluations of that stimulus. An abundance of previous mere exposure research has utilised neutral, meaningless stimuli, with few studies using emotional stimuli. However, it is highly plausible that the stimuli used in these studies were not truly emotional. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of repeated exposure on liking ratings of images which had inherent emotional properties, namely valence and arousal. Three experiments took place. Experiment 1 used neutral yet meaningful images to obtain a baseline but surprisingly, no significant mere exposure effect was found. Experiment 2 then used images differing in valence and arousal in which a significant effect was found for the negative high arousal images only. Guided by these findings, Experiment 3 then used negative high arousal images that have greater societal application, namely cigarette health warning images. Strikingly, a significant mere exposure effect was again found. It is argued that stimulus discriminability played a vital role in the occurrence of the mere exposure effect, such that a significant effect was found only when the stimuli were of similar content to one another. Recommendations were made that the design of cigarette health warnings need to have more variability in the content that is depicted to prevent increases in affective evaluations from occurring.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36910