Abstract
Mere exposure is the effect that "the more I look at it, the more I like it". Here we hypothesized that the mere exposure effect is further determined by the type of object under evaluation. We conducted two experiments: Experiment 1: Food images vs. Face images. Experiment 2: Appetitive food images vs. Aversive food images. The two experiments both need to go through the first evaluation stage, the exposure stage and the second evaluation stage in order. The data clearly show that with the present settings, the mere exposure effect acts on face images, but not on appetitive and aversive food images. And The behavior of evaluating the image itself (The reinforcement effect) works with faces and aversive foods, but not with appetitive foods. With the current presentation, faces may have been recognized at the individual (subcategory) level, whereas foods were recognized at a food category level.
