仮名文字に対する単純接触効果―実験室外の接触頻度と文化間比較に基づく検討―

抄録

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.