Mere exposure effect and nostalgia

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that long-term exposure to stimuli and the interval after the exposure evoke nostalgia for the stimuli, and that the massed presentation and the interval promote the mere exposure effect. This paper introduces three experiments that manipulated the presentation schedule in long-term contact and two experiments that manipulated participants’ optimism/pessimism and social power. These experiments showed that nostalgia and the mere exposure effect were aroused by long-term mass presentation and the massed presentation to optimistic participants who had undergone a high-power operation. However, these results may have a very limited effect.