I was thinking about why songs grow on me after repeat listens. The brain begins to anticipate beats, motifs, and specific moments, and that anticipation heightens the emotional payoff. Turns out there's a name for the underlying mechanism.
The mere exposure effect was first identified by psychologist Robert Zajonc in the 1960s. The finding is simple: the more often we're exposed to a stimulus (a face, a song, a word, an idea), the more we tend to like it. Repeated exposure increases familiarity, and familiarity breeds preference. This applies to advertising, music, interpersonal attraction, and just about everything else.
I was thinking about why songs grow on me after repeat listens. The brain begins to anticipate beats, motifs, and specific moments, and that anticipation heightens the emotional payoff. Turns out there's a name for the underlying mechanism.
The mere exposure effect was first identified by psychologist Robert Zajonc in the 1960s. The finding is simple: the more often we're exposed to a stimulus (a face, a song, a word, an idea), the more we tend to like it. Repeated exposure increases familiarity, and familiarity breeds preference. This applies to advertising, music, interpersonal attraction, and just about everything else.