Exposure Is Not Enough: Suppressing Stimuli from Awareness Can Abolish the Mere Exposure Effect
Open accessAbstract
Passive exposure to neutral stimuli increases subsequent liking of those stimuli--the mere exposure effect. Because of the broad implications for understanding and controlling human preferences, the role of conscious awareness in mere exposure has received much attention. Previous studies have claimed that the mere exposure effect can occur without conscious awareness of the stimuli. In two experiments, we applied a technique new to the mere exposure literature, called continuous flash suppression, to expose stimuli for a controlled duration with and without awareness. To ensure the reliability of the awareness manipulation, awareness was monitored on a trial-by-trial basis. Our results show that under these conditions the mere exposure effect does not occur without conscious awareness. In contrast, only when participants were aware of the stimuli did exposure increase liking and recognition. Together these data are consistent with the idea that the mere exposure effect requires conscious awareness and has important implications for theories of memory and affect.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In de Zilva et al. (2013), a significant ME effect emerged only for unsuppressed stimuli and for suppressed stimuli that had entered awareness.
“Moreover, a significant ME effect emerged only for unsuppressed stimuli and for suppressed stimuli that had entered awareness.”
From Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects (2025) · cites this paper as de Zilva et al. 2013
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences.
Zajonc, R. B. (1980) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.35.2.151 · Cited by 8,094 · see citing works
Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure
Zajonc, R. B. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025848 · Cited by 6,745 · see citing works
Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver's Processing Experience?
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_3 · Cited by 2,967 · see citing works
Presentation and validation of the Radboud Faces Database
Langner, O., Dotsch, R., Bijlstra, G., Wigboldus, D. H. J., Hawk, S. T., & van Knippenberg, A. (2010) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699930903485076 · Cited by 2,431 · see citing works
Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987.
Bornstein, R. F. (1989) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.106.2.265 · Cited by 1,970 · see citing works
Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments
Reber, R., Winkielman, P., & Schwarz, N. (1998) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00008 · Cited by 1,326 · see citing works
Affective Discrimination of Stimuli That Cannot Be Recognized
Kunst-Wilson, W. R., & Zajonc, R. B. (1980) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7352271 · Cited by 1,213 · see citing works
Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems
Shanks, D. R., & St. John, M. F. (1994) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00035032 · Cited by 1,163 · see citing works
Continuous flash suppression reduces negative afterimages
Tsuchiya, N., & Christof Koch, A. (2005) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1500 · Cited by 978 · see citing works
Whittlesea, B. W. A. (1993) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.19.6.1235 · Cited by 865 · see citing works
The role of awareness in Pavlovian conditioning: empirical evidence and theoretical implications.
Lovibond, P., & Shanks, D. (2002) · Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes · doi:10.1037/0097-7403.28.1.3 · Cited by 748 · see citing works
Neural bases of binocular rivalry
Tong, F., Meng, M., & Blake, R. (2006) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.09.003 · Cited by 689 · see citing works
Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review
Newell, B. R., & Shanks, D. R. (2014) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x12003214 · Cited by 652 · see citing works
Self-citationStimulus recognition and the mere exposure effect.
Bornstein, R. F., & D’Agostino, P. R. (1992) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.63.4.545 · Cited by 643 · see citing works
The Effects of Mere Exposure on Liking for Edible Substances
Pliner, P. P. (1982) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/s0195-6663(82)80026-3 · Cited by 550 · see citing works
Cortical responses to invisible objects in the human dorsal and ventral pathways
Fang, F., & He, S. (2005) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1537 · Cited by 479 · see citing works
Preattentive Mere Exposure Effects
Janiszewski, C. (1993) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/209356 · Cited by 455 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The phenomenon has been applied to a wide range of fields, including exposure therapy [2], stereotypes and prejudice [3], brand preferences [4], food preferences [5], and aesthetics [6], [7], [8].”
BackgroundStimulus recognition and the mere exposure effect.
Bornstein, R. F., & D’Agostino, P. R. (1992) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.545 · Cited by 447 · see citing works
Bornstein, R. F., & D’Agostino, P. R. (1994) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.1994.12.2.103 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
Subliminal Mere Exposure: Specific, General, and Diffuse Effects
Monahan, J. L., Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (2000) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00289 · Cited by 366 · see citing works
Rewards evoke learning of unconsciously processed visual stimuli in adult humans
Seitz, A. R., Kim, D., & Watanabe, T. (2009) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2009.01.016 · Cited by 337 · see citing works
Cortical Responses to Invisible Faces: Dissociating Subsystems for Facial-Information Processing
Jiang, Y., & He, S. (2006) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.084 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
Subcortical Discrimination of Unperceived Objects during Binocular Rivalry
Pasley, B. N., Mayes, L. C., & Schultz, R. T. (2004) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(04)00155-2 · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Liking and Memory for Musical Stimuli as a Function of Exposure.
Szpunar, K. K., Schellenberg, E. G., & Pliner, P. P. (2004) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.30.2.370 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Bornstein, R. F., Leone, D. R., & Galley, D. J. (1987) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.53.6.1070 · Cited by 227 · see citing works
The Role of the Dorsal Visual Processing Stream in Tool Identification
Almeida, J., Mahon, B. Z., & Caramazza, A. (2010) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797610371343 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Faces and awareness: Low-level, not emotional factors determine perceptual dominance.
Gray, K. L. H., Adams, W. J., Hedger, N., Newton, K. E., & Garner, M. J. (2013) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0031403 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
Seamon, J. G., Marsh, R. L., & Brody, N. (1984) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.10.3.465 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Seamon, J. G., Williams, P., Crowley, M. J., Kim, I. J., Langer, S. A., Orne, P. J., & Wishengrad, D. L. (1995) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.21.3.711 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Nonconscious fear is quickly acquired but swiftly forgotten
Raio, C. M., Carmel, D. P., Carrasco, M., & Phelps, E. A. (2012) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.04.023 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Affective habituation: Subliminal exposure to extreme stimuli decreases their extremity.
Dijksterhuis, A., & Smith, P. K. (2002) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/1528-3542.2.3.203 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Contextual Illusions Reveal the Limit of Unconscious Visual Processing
Harris, J. J., Schwarzkopf, D. S., Song, C., Bahrami, B., & Rees, G. E. (2011) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797611399293 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Faivre, N., Berthet, V., & Kouider, S. (2012) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00129 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Adaptation to invisible motion results in low-level but not high-level aftereffects
Maruya, K., Watanabe, H., & Watanabe, M. (2008) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/8.11.7 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Memory Enhances the Mere Exposure Effect
Stafford, T., & Grimes, A. (2012) · Psychology and Marketing · doi:10.1002/mar.20581 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Stein, T., & Sterzer, P. (2011) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/11.8.5 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Repetition and Boredom in a Perceptual Fluency/ Attributional Model of Affective Judgements
den Bergh, O. V., & Vrana, S. R. (1998) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/026999398379556 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Recognising what you like: Examining the relation between the mere-exposure effect and recognition
Newell, B. R., & Shanks, D. R. (2006) · The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/09541440500487454 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Self-citationVizueta, N., Patrick, C. J., Jiang, Y., Thomas, K. M., & He, S. (2011) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.015 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Seamon, J. G., Marsh, R. L., & Brody, N. (1984) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037//0278-7393.10.3.465 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Cortical responses to invisible objects in human dorsal and ventral pathways
Fang, F., & He, S. (2010) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/5.8.15 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
White Boys' Ratings of Pictures of Whites and Blacks as Related to Amount of Familiarization
Ball, P. M., & Cantor, G. N. (1974) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.1974.39.2.883 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Eliminating the mere exposure effect through changes in context between exposure and test
de Zilva, D., Mitchell, C. J., & Newell, B. (2013) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2013.775110 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationAssociative Learning: Pavlovian Conditioning without Awareness
Pearson, J. (2012) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.04.042 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [6]Berlyne DE (1974) The new experimental aesthetics. In DE Berlyne (Ed.), Studies in the new experimental aesthetics (pp. 1–25). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Montoya, R. M., Horton, R. S., Vevea, J. L., Citkowicz, M., & Lauber, E. A. (2017) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000085 · Cited by 389 · see citing works
On the use of continuous flash suppression for the study of visual processing outside of awareness
Yang, E., Brascamp, J. W., Kang, M.-S., & Blake, R. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00724 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
The Role of Awareness in Attitude Formation Through Evaluative Conditioning
Sweldens, S., Corneille, O., & Yzerbyt, V. (2014) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868314527832 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Approach–Avoidance Training Effects Are Moderated by Awareness of Stimulus–Action Contingencies
Dessel, P. V., Houwer, J. D., & Gast, A. (2015) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167215615335 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Sustained invisibility through crowding and continuous flash suppression: a comparative review
Faivre, N., Berthet, V., & Kouider, S. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00475 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Positive Effects of Disruptive Advertising on Consumer Preferences
Bell, R., & Buchner, A. (2017) · Journal of Interactive Marketing · doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2017.09.002 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The Mere Exposure Instruction Effect
Dessel, P. V., Mertens, G., Smith, C. T., & Houwer, J. D. (2017) · Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) · doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000376 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Inferring the direction of implied motion depends on visual awareness
Faivre, N., & Christof Koch, A. (2014) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/14.4.4 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Kutnick, P. J., Lee, B. P.-Y., Chan, R. Y.-Y., & Chan, C. K. Y. (2020) · International Journal of Educational Research · doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101610 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The Contribution of Attention to the Mere Exposure Effect for Parts of Advertising Images
Yagi, Y., & Inoue, K. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01635 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Making the Unfamiliar Familiar: The Effect of Exposure on Ratings of Unfamiliar Musical Chords
Smit, E. A., Milne, A. J., Dean, R. T., & Weidemann, G. (2020) · Musicae Scientiae · doi:10.1177/1029864920948575 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects
Gawronski, B., & Corneille, O. (2025) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-051324-031037 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Dessel, P. V., Mertens, G., Smith, C., & de Houwer, J. (2018) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167218789065 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Interpretation inflexibility and negative social impression in paranoia
Deng, W., Joormann, J., & Cannon, T. D. (2022) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-022-04003-z · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Multiple context mere exposure: Examining the limits of liking
de Zilva, D., Newell, B. R., & Mitchell, C. J. (2015) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1057188 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citationImpact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Patterns
Donnellan, J., McDonald, M., & Edmondson, M. L. (2020) · International Journal of Marketing Studies · doi:10.5539/ijms.v12n3p71 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Prochazkova, E., Venneker, D., de Zwart, R., Tamietto, M., & Kret, M. E. (2022) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0183 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Body Size Judgments at 17 ms: Evidence From Perceptual and Attitudinal Body Image Indexes
Nazareth, A. C. D. P., Escobar, V. S., & de Castro, T. G. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03018 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Mere exposure effect(s) in the context of explicit memory search
Grybinas, D., Kantner, J., & Dobbins, I. G. (2019) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/s13421-019-00935-3 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Mere Exposure Effect Is Sometimes Insensitive to Mood Inductions
Molet, M., Craddock, P., Osroff, A. J., Li, P., Livingston, T. L., & Miller, R. R. (2021) · Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) · doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000514 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
The Mere Exposure Effect and Classical Conditioning
Wong, R. (2015) · CU Scholar (University of Colorado Boulder)
A Review of the Theory of Mere Exposure Effect
刘, 洋. (2023) · Advances in Social Sciences · doi:10.12677/ass.2023.123183
ATTENTION, EXPOSURE DURATION, AND EMOTIONS: INCREASED PLEASURE AND HABITUATION
Trifu, D., & Cristina, S. C. (2025) · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT · doi:10.34218/ijm_16_02_012
Addressing demand artifacts in psychological research (and beyond)
Corneille, O., Bernard, C. F., & Lush, P. (2026) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-026-03155-1
Non-reinforced Preference Change
Cantor, A., Or, M. B., Itzkovitch, A., & Schönberg, T. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6_13
- Authors
- de Zilva, D., Vu, L., Newell, B. R., & Pearson, J.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Pearson, Joel
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-10-17
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e77726
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3798387
- OpenAlex
- W2129631281
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 1.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Health and Medical Research Council (1049596, 1046198, 1024800)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- mere exposure effect, conscious awareness, continuous flash suppression, liking, recognition memory, preference formation, visual awareness
- MeSH terms
- Awareness, Female, Humans, Male, Memory
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
