CET-6 Listening Practice: Why Familiar Things Feel Better

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's lecture on familiarity and liking.

大家午安，歡迎來聽今天關於熟悉感與喜好的講座。

There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt.

有句老話說，太熟悉了就會心生輕視。

In other words, the better we know something, the less we tend to value it.

換句話說，我們對某樣東西越了解，往往就越不把它當一回事。

But does seeing something again and again really make us like it less?

但是，一次又一次地看到某樣東西，真的會讓我們沒那麼喜歡它嗎？

In nineteen sixty-eight, the psychologist Robert Zajonc set out to answer this question.

1968年，心理學家Robert Zajonc著手回答這個問題。

He showed volunteers a series of made-up words that sounded vaguely foreign.

他讓志願者看了一系列編造出來的詞，聽起來隱約像是外語。

He also used symbols that resembled Chinese characters, as well as photographs of strangers.

他還用了一些像漢字的符號，以及陌生人的照片。

Crucially, some items appeared only once, while others were shown as many as twenty-five times.

關鍵在於，有些項目只出現一次，另一些則多達25次。

Afterwards, participants guessed whether each word or symbol meant something good or bad.

之後，參與者要猜每個詞或符號的意思是好是壞。

For the faces, they simply rated how much they liked each person.

至於人臉照片，他們只需評估自己有多喜歡每個人。

The results were strikingly consistent!

結果驚人地一致！

The more often an item had been shown, the more positively it was rated.

一個項目被展示的次數越多，得到的評價就越正面。

Nothing about the items themselves had changed, only how familiar they were.

這些項目本身沒有任何變化，變的只是熟悉程度。

He called this the mere exposure effect, because exposure alone was enough.

他把這稱為單純曝光效應，因為光是接觸本身就已足夠。

However, this does not mean that more exposure is always better.

然而，這並不表示接觸越多就一定越好。

In nineteen eighty-nine, a review of more than two hundred experiments examined the effect.

1989年，一篇回顧研究分析了200多項實驗，檢視了這個效應。

It found that liking usually peaks within ten to twenty exposures.

研究發現，好感通常在接觸10到20次之內達到高峰。

Beyond that point, liking can even decline, perhaps because people simply get bored.

超過這個次數，好感甚至可能下降，也許只是因為人們覺得膩了。

Surprisingly, the effect tends to be stronger when people barely notice the item at all!

令人意外的是，當人們幾乎沒注意到這個項目時，效應往往更強！

In some studies, shapes flashed too quickly to be recognised were still preferred later.

在一些研究中，圖形閃現得太快、根本認不出來，事後卻仍然更受青睞。

This helps explain why advertisers repeat the same brand name over and over.

這有助於解釋為什麼廣告商一再重複同一個品牌名稱。

It may also be why a song we disliked at first can gradually grow on us.

這或許也是為什麼一首一開始不喜歡的歌，會讓我們越聽越喜歡。

Even a classmate who seemed unremarkable at first can become likeable through repeated encounters.

就連一開始看起來平凡無奇的同學，也會在一次次見面後變得討人喜歡。

For language learners, the lesson is clear: meet new words again and again.

對語言學習者來說，啟示很明確：要一次又一次地接觸新單字。

The more often you hear them in songs, films and conversations, the less strange they feel.

你在歌曲、電影和對話中聽到它們的次數越多，就越不覺得陌生。

Just vary your materials, so that repetition never turns into boredom.

只是要記得變換學習材料，別讓重複變成厭倦。

So next time you find yourself liking something new, ask yourself how often you have seen it.

所以，下次你發現自己喜歡上某樣新東西時，不妨問問自己已經看過它多少次了。

Thank you for listening, and see you next week.

謝謝大家，我們下週見。