Prompted by another thread on which songs to use for hi fi demos and a book I'm reading at the moment, I thought people might be interested to read about the mere-exposure effect. Essentially, we are predisposed to negative emotions about unfamiliar things and to positive emotions about familiar things. Most interestingly, this is a sub-conscious effect, so an exposure might not have been conscious (e.g. a song playing in the background that we didn't consciously hear / a billboard that we didn't consciously notice, etc). Psychologists have theorised that this is a survival instinct - things we have experienced in our environment and survived put us at ease, whereas new things put us on our guard.
This could explain a few of the things forum members experience, e.g. "burn in" / preference at demos for "warm sounding" equipment over objectively more "hi fi" equipment / the phenomenon of preferring the second component demoed to the first and then switching back and not being so sure / liking the "house sound" of a brand.
Also, more generally, I'm sure I've experienced this when getting into a new artist or genre of music.
The thing that really intrigues me about this is that it's entirely automatic - we have no choice. You will like your new speakers tomorrow more than you like them today. You will like the look of an amp in an advert you automatically flicked past in WHFS&V more than one that wasn't advertised. You will like the salesman more when you go back for your second demo. If you have classic FM on in the background for a week, you will start to like classical music more. Whathifi's reviewers will like a product that's been hyped more than one released without fanfare. You will think that the LS50s are amazing for the money. Look at the following list:
Bowers and Wilkins
Audiomaster
Kef
Technalab
Naim
Nagatano
You won't have been aware of it, but you will have smiled ever so slightly (the electrical impulses would have been measurable had you been hooked up to electrodes) upon reading the familar names. You'd have stopped smiling when you read the brand names I just made up.
So, what should you take to your next demo? A better understanding of how your preferences are formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect
This could explain a few of the things forum members experience, e.g. "burn in" / preference at demos for "warm sounding" equipment over objectively more "hi fi" equipment / the phenomenon of preferring the second component demoed to the first and then switching back and not being so sure / liking the "house sound" of a brand.
Also, more generally, I'm sure I've experienced this when getting into a new artist or genre of music.
The thing that really intrigues me about this is that it's entirely automatic - we have no choice. You will like your new speakers tomorrow more than you like them today. You will like the look of an amp in an advert you automatically flicked past in WHFS&V more than one that wasn't advertised. You will like the salesman more when you go back for your second demo. If you have classic FM on in the background for a week, you will start to like classical music more. Whathifi's reviewers will like a product that's been hyped more than one released without fanfare. You will think that the LS50s are amazing for the money. Look at the following list:
Bowers and Wilkins
Audiomaster
Kef
Technalab
Naim
Nagatano
You won't have been aware of it, but you will have smiled ever so slightly (the electrical impulses would have been measurable had you been hooked up to electrodes) upon reading the familar names. You'd have stopped smiling when you read the brand names I just made up.
So, what should you take to your next demo? A better understanding of how your preferences are formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect