Abstract
We examined the effect of subliminal mere exposure on the implicit group evaluation,
focusing on the typicality of group members. Recent researches on the mere exposure
effects have suggested the important roles of the cognitive factors on preference forma-
tion. We considered the exposures to non-typical members in a group as the factor of
heterogeneity, investigating the optimum level of heterogeneity to improve the implicit
“Otaku” evaluation. We hypothesized that exposure to a few heterogeneous members
in a group would have a stronger effect. In the experiment, ten group members were
subliminally presented as “Otaku”, and the number of the typical members in the ten
members was manipulated. Then their implicit “Otaku” evaluations were measured
using the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT). The results showed that the exposure
to the seven typical and three non-typical members produced the most powerful effects
in all conditions, whereas the exposures which contained more non-typical members
than typical members had no effect. The roles of heterogeneity in mere exposure effect
and implications for the unconsciousness of the higher mental processes were discussed.
