CET-6 Listening Practice: Why Familiar Things Feel Better

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

大家下午好，欢迎来听今天关于熟悉感与喜好的讲座。

There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt.

有句老话说，太熟悉了就会生出轻视。

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

换句话说，我们对某样东西越了解，往往就越不把它当回事。

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

但是，一次又一次地看到某样东西，真的会让我们不那么喜欢它吗？

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

1968年，心理学家Robert Zajonc着手回答这个问题。

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

他给志愿者看了一系列编造出来的词，听起来隐约像是外语。

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

他还用了一些像汉字的符号，以及陌生人的照片。

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

关键在于，有些项目只出现一次，而另一些则多达25次。

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

之后，参与者要猜每个词或符号的意思是好是坏。

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

至于人脸照片，他们只需评价自己有多喜欢每个人。

The results were strikingly consistent!

结果惊人地一致！

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

一个项目被展示的次数越多，得到的评价就越正面。

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

这些项目本身没有任何变化，变的只是熟悉程度。

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

他把这称为单纯曝光效应，因为光是接触本身就已足够。

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

然而，这并不意味着接触越多就一定越好。

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

1989年，一篇综述分析了200多项实验，对这一效应进行了考察。

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

研究发现，好感通常在接触10到20次以内达到顶峰。

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

超过这个次数，好感甚至可能下降，也许只是因为人们感到厌倦了。

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

令人意外的是，当人们几乎没有注意到这个项目时，效应往往更强！

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

在一些研究中，图形闪现得太快、根本认不出来，但事后仍然更受青睐。

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

这有助于解释为什么广告商一遍又一遍地重复同一个品牌名称。

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

这或许也是为什么一首起初不喜欢的歌，会让我们越听越喜欢。

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

就连一开始看起来平平无奇的同学，也会在一次次见面后变得讨人喜欢。

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

对语言学习者来说，启示很明确：要一次又一次地接触新单词。

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

你在歌曲、电影和对话中听到它们的次数越多，就越不觉得陌生。

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

只是要注意变换学习材料，别让重复变成厌倦。

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

所以，下次你发现自己喜欢上某样新东西时，不妨问问自己已经见过它多少次了。

Thank you for listening, and see you next week.

谢谢大家，我们下周见。