Psychologyspeaking topic
The mere exposure effect: why do we start liking a song or a face more the more often we encounter it? How does familiarity turn into fondness?
— Robert Zajonc, mere exposure effect
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
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- The Asch conformity experiment: if everyone in the room gave the same wrong answer, would you go along with them even though you knew the truth? Do we believe our own eyes or the group?
- Hopi time: Whorf claimed the Hopi language constructs time very differently from ours. If a language has no past-present-future line, how does its speaker experience time?
- Some languages have no 'left' and 'right', only north, south, east, and west; their speakers stay oriented even inside a dark room. The language forces them to think like a compass at all times. Does language make them brilliant navigators, or did the environment shape the language that way?
- The agentic state: while obeying someone, we begin to see ourselves not as the author of our actions but as a mere instrument. When we hand responsibility to someone else, how much of it do we actually hand over?