Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University,Taipei, Taiwan.
Emotion. 2013 Jun;13(3):391-6. doi: 10.1037/a0030861. Epub 2013 Jan 28.
Familiarity leads to preference (e.g., the mere exposure effect), yet it remains unknown whether it is objective familiarity, that is, repetitive exposure, or subjective familiarity that contributes to preference. In addition, it is unexplored whether and how different emotions influence familiarity-related preference. The authors investigated whether happy or sad faces are preferred or perceived as more familiar and whether this subjective familiarity judgment correlates with preference for different emotional faces. An emotional face--happy or sad--was paired with a neutral face, and participants rated the relative preference and familiarity of each of the paired faces. For preference judgment, happy faces were preferred and sad faces were less preferred, compared with neutral faces. For familiarity judgment, happy faces did not show any bias, but sad faces were perceived as less familiar than neutral faces. Item-by-item correlational analyses show preference for sad faces--but not happy faces--positively correlate with familiarity. These results suggest a direct link between positive emotion and preference, and argue at least partly against a common cause for familiarity and preference. Instead, facial expression of different emotional valence modulates the link between familiarity and preference.
熟悉导致偏好（例如，单纯曝光效应），但仍不清楚是客观的熟悉，即重复曝光，还是主观的熟悉导致了偏好。此外，不同的情绪是否以及如何影响与熟悉度相关的偏好还没有被探索过。作者研究了快乐或悲伤的面孔是更受欢迎还是被认为更熟悉，以及这种主观熟悉度判断是否与对不同情绪面孔的偏好相关。将一张快乐的或悲伤的情绪面孔与一张中性的面孔相匹配，参与者对每张配对面孔的相对偏好和熟悉度进行评分。在偏好判断方面，与中性面孔相比，快乐的面孔更受欢迎，悲伤的面孔则不太受欢迎。在熟悉度判断方面，快乐的面孔没有表现出任何偏见，但悲伤的面孔被认为不如中性面孔熟悉。逐项相关分析表明，对悲伤面孔的偏好——而不是对快乐的面孔——与熟悉度呈正相关。这些结果表明积极情绪与偏好之间存在直接联系，并且至少部分反对熟悉度和偏好的共同原因。相反，不同情绪效价的面部表情调节了熟悉度和偏好之间的联系。
