Analysing your IQ
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AKA: "Familiarity Breeds Liking"
The tendency to develop a preference for things simply because you are familiar with them.
Mere Exposure Effect affects everyone, including (especially) people who think they're immune. The first step to fixing it is understanding how it works.
You prefer your company's products, your local candidates, your usual brands—not because they're better, but because they're known.
Mere Exposure Effect isn't just an abstract concept—it affects real decisions about money, relationships, career, and health. The cost of ignoring it compounds over time.
This error is driven by Familiarity signals safety (things you've seen before haven't killed you), creating unearned positive affect..
This bias exists because human brains evolved for survival, not accuracy. Familiarity signals safety (things you've seen before haven't killed you), creating unearned positive affect. served our ancestors well. In modern contexts, it often misfires.
In investing: Mere Exposure Effect leads to holding losing positions too long or selling winners too early.
In relationships: This bias causes people to interpret ambiguous signals in ways that confirm existing beliefs about partners.
In work: Mere Exposure Effect makes it harder to update strategies when market conditions change.
In health: People ignore symptoms that contradict their self-image as "healthy" or "young."
The scientific literature on Mere Exposure Effect spans behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, and decision science. The finding is robust across cultures and contexts.
When evaluating options, blind yourself to familiarity. Compare features and outcomes, not feelings of comfort.
Seek disconfirming evidence: Actively look for data that challenges your current belief.
Use decision journals: Write down predictions before outcomes are known, then review accuracy.
Consult diverse perspectives: People with different backgrounds spot different biases.
Implement decision rules: Pre-commit to criteria before emotionally charged situations arise.
Time-box decisions: Revisit important conclusions after a cooling-off period.
Some brains are more susceptible to this than others. Test your Personality to find out.
The tendency to develop a preference for things simply because you are familiar with them.
The alternate name "Familiarity Breeds Liking" captures the intuitive essence of the bias. Mere Exposure Effect is the formal psychological term, while "Familiarity Breeds Liking" describes what it feels like in practice.
When evaluating options, blind yourself to familiarity. Compare features and outcomes, not feelings of comfort.
The underlying mechanism is familiarity signals safety (things you've seen before haven't killed you), creating unearned positive affect.. Human brains evolved heuristics for speed and survival, not accuracy in modern contexts.
Yes. Intelligence doesn't provide immunity—sometimes it makes the bias worse because smart people are better at rationalizing. Awareness and structured decision processes are more protective than raw IQ.
You prefer your company's products, your local candidates, your usual brands—not because they're better, but because they're known.