So as I was thinking about what to write for this blog, the song Surfin' Bird started playing from my iTunes. Immediately, it reminded me of how Matt's girlfriend, Mary, really hates the song, whereas Matt and myself like it. I think the reason for this is that she's been overexposed to the song, meaning that she's heard the song one too many times.Overexposure is considered a limitation to the mere-exposure effect (Giuliano's lecture, 4/19/10). The mere-exposure effect is a phenomenon whereby the more often people are exposed to a stimulus, the more positively they evaluate that stimulus (Zajonc, 1968). This effect affects people by exposing them to any sort of stimulus be it another person, word, shape, or song.
The mere-exposure effect explains why when we initially see or hear something, our opinion is less positive than after we've seen or heard something a few times. I know that this happens to me a lot...especially with music. For example, when I first heard the song You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift in the dentist office I worked at over the summer I thought, "Meh, it's ok." After hearing it a few more times, the song grew on me and I eventually came to like it. However, by the middle of the summer I had heard the song too many times and anytime it came on I made my way to the file room where the music could not reach me.
The mere-exposure effect has also affected me with how friendly I am with people. I know that the more I see a person, the more likely I am to chat with them or at the minimum throw them a smile as we pass each other walking. With such a small campus the proximity between ourselves and those we interact with on a regular basis whether in passing or not, strengthens the mere-exposure effect (Latane, Liu, Nowak, Bonevento, & Zheng, 1995).
Overall, there are plenty of things I've come to like after being exposed to them enough and when I find something that someone has been overexposed to, I usually take advantage of it just to see what happens. I say this because Surfin' Bird didn't randomly start playing...I chose it to annoy her in the living room, which eventually lead to both Matt and myself singing it to do more damage. All in all, a song well played.
References:
Latane, B., Liu, J. H., Nowak, A., Bonevento, M., & Zheng, L. (1995). Distance matters: Physical space and social impact. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 795-805.
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monograph Supplement, 9(2), 1-27.
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5 comments:
That is a hilarious example, especially because it made me think immediately about when they use that song in Family Guy. There are so many songs that I have experienced the overexposure effect with. It is really interesting how something can grow on you so much that you begin to really like it, but eventually it just begins to annoy you like crazy. I've learned that when I find a song that I like I have to pace myself with it and not listen to it too much so that I will continue to like it.
I hate that song. No, I haven't heard it too much, I just think it's annoying :).
Over-exposure happens to me with a lot of songs, and food sometimes too. For example, I can eat Ramen because it's cheap, but after about a week has gone by and I haven't had much else besides Ramen, I get tired of it pretty quickly.
I wonder how much the over-exposure effect can be tempered by other things. Because I can totally relate to anyone finding that song annoying and see how it might be. But because the song is so ridiculous and annoying, I find myself liking it even more. And the bird really is the word.
I find it interesting that you compare the balance between 'warming up' to a stimulus and getting too sick of it, or the mere-exposure and over-exposure. Songs were a perfect example, considering that they repeat so much. Matt, I wonder how much habituating to something like a song affects how we feel about it, especially if we become sick of it but then start singing it in our head. Which made Miley Cyrus my enemy after awhile...
The mere exposure thing definitely gets me with music, too -- I'm one of many, huh? I'll buy a CD and only listen to one or two songs (usually the first few -- primacy!) for SUCH a long time without even giving the others a try; it almost always takes me awhile to just make myself listen to the whole CD through, even if I know I'll probably like the others, too.
Oddly, I don't really start to hate songs after hearing them a million times, though. I stop actively listening to them (I'm a "serial looper" by nature, playing a song hundreds of times in a row before getting over it, ahem), but there aren't really songs that I love and then start to hate. The things that made me love them are still there -- but I do at least experience a more mild version of the lack of desire to hear it that the overexposure effect triggers.
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