Chapter 1. Warm Glow Heuristic

1.1 Introduction

This study is a replication of one performed by Benoit Monin in 2003 that provided a conclusive measure of the relationship between familiarity and attractiveness. Specifically, the more familiar a face, the more attractive it will be. This relationship between familiarity and attractiveness had already been explored from another perspective by Robert Zajonc (1968) in his “mere exposure paradigm.” The “warm glow heuristic” is closely related to mere exposure, which is the finding that we find more attractive those stimuli, including faces, that we see repeatedly. The underlying mechanism of both phenomena is still debated. The warm glow finding mirrors anecdotal evidence that suggests that we find faces of attractive people to be familiar in some way.

Monin, B. (2003) The warm glow heuristic: when liking leads to familiarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 85(6), 1035-1048.

Zajonc, R. B. (2001). Mere exposure: a gateway to the subliminal. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 224-228.

Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1-27.

1.2 Experiment Setup

Figure 1.1

1.3 Instructions

You will need to press the space bar to start the experiment. A series of faces will appear in the center of the screen, one at a time. There will be 40 faces presented for 7 seconds each; there will be a 3-second pause between each face. Your task is to supply a rating for each face on a scale from 0 to 10. A 0 denotes a face that is not at all [attractive, familiar] and 10 denotes a face that is extremely [attractive, familiar]. The next face will be presented when you supply a rating.

Keyboard Responses

1.4 Experiment

Figure 1.2

1.5 Results

Figure 1.3

1.6 Quiz