Robert Zajonc

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Robert B. Zajonc (b. 1923) is a social psychologist who is best known for his decades of work on the mere exposure effect, the phenomenon that repeated exposure to a stimulus brings about an attitude change in relation to the stimulus. His official faculty description notes his focus on processes involved in social behavior, with an emphasis on the relationship between affect or emotion and cognition. Zajonc is also well known for his study of cockroaches showing that the phenomenon of social facilitation extends to other species. His current work focuses on the social forces that lead to genocide, and what can be done to prevent such situations in the future.

Zajonc received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1955. He is currently on the faculty at Stanford University. His wife, renowned cultural psychologist Hazel Markus, is also a professor there.

[edit] Exposure effect

Zajonc theorized that the more often individuals came into contact with a given stimulus, the more likely they would be to recognise the object and must form their own attitude about the stimulus by thinking about it. This is a broader theory than the common mere exposure effect theory, which states that the attitude change brought about by more frequent exposure to the stimulus is a positive one.

His many experiments on the subject have used a wide range of visual stimuli, including Chinese characters, Turkish words and people's faces.

For his achievements, Zajonc was presented the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1978.