The Japanese Journal of Psychonomic Science
Online ISSN : 2188-7977
Print ISSN : 0287-7651
ISSN-L : 0287-7651
Research Notes
Mere exposure effect to Japanese kana characters: Evidence from exposure frequency outside laboratories and a cross-cultural comparison
Taketo Saito Kazuya InoueHiroki HiguchiTessei Kobayashi
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2022 Volume 40 Issue 2 Pages 170-174

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Abstract

Although online research has shown promise as an alternative to laboratory research, it is unsuitable for the mere exposure effect because it is unknown whether participants sufficiently pay attention to repeated stimuli. To overcome this problem, we developed an online research method using exposure frequency in everyday life, which was combined with a cross-cultural comparison to consider the effect of confounding factors. Participants familiar and unfamiliar (Japanese and English speakers) with kana characters evaluated their attractiveness. After standardizing the attractiveness for each participant, we calculated the mean of each character’s view for each type of speaker to calculate a character-based correlation. The result of the Japanese speakers showed a moderate positive correlation between attractiveness and log-transformed exposure frequency to the characters counted by a Japanese corpus, indicating an occurrence of the mere exposure effect. This result cannot be explained by such confounding factors as the visual aspects of the characters due to a non-significant correlation in the English speakers. This study provided a more appropriate way to study the mere exposure effect in online environments.

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© 2022 The Japanese Psychonomic Society
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