Robert Zajonc

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Robert B. Zajonc (1923-present) 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 is also well known for his study of cockroaches showing that the phenomenon of social facilitation extends to other species.

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.

Contents 1 Exposure effect 2 See also 3 Publications 3.1 Books 3.2 Papers 4 External link

[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.

[edit] See also

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

• Izard, C., Kagan, J., & Zajonc, R. (Eds.). (1984). Emotions, cognition, and behavior. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Zajonc, R. B. (2003). The selected works of R. B. Zajonc. New York: Wiley.
• Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Social psychology: An experimental approach. California: Brooks/Cole.
• Zajonc, R.B. (1965) Social facilitation, Science 149: 269-74.

[edit] Papers

• Herrera, N. C, Zajonc, R. B., Wieczorkowska, G., & Cichomski, B. (2003). Beliefs about birth rank and their reflection in reality. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 85(1), 142-150.
• McIntosh, D. N., Zajonc, R. B., Vig, P. S., & Emerick, S. W. (1997). Facial movement, breathing, temperature, and affect: Implications of the vascular theory of emotional efference. Cognition & Emotion, 11(2), 171-195.
• Monahan, J. L., Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (2000). Subliminal mere exposure: Specific, general, and diffuse effects. Psychological Science, 11(6), 462-466.
• Murphy, S. T, Monahan, J. L., & Zajonc, R. B. (1995). Additivity of nonconscious affect: Combined effects of priming and exposure. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69(4), 589-602.
• Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 64(5), 723-739.
• Raven, B. H., Zajonc, R. B., & Kupper, D. A. (2003). Harold B. Gerard (1923-2003). American Psychologist, 58(10), 811.
• Winkielman, P., Zajonc, R. B, & Schwarz, N. (1997). Subliminal affective priming resists attributional interventions. Cognition & Emotion, 11(4), 433-465.
• Zajonc, R. B. (2001). Birth order debate resolved? [American Psychologist]], 56(6-7), 522-523.
• Zajonc, R. B. (2001). The family dynamics of intellectual development. American Psychologist, 56(6-7), 490-496.
• Zajonc, R. B. (1993). The confluence model: Differential or difference equation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 23(2), 211-215.
• Zajonc, R. B. (1989). Styles of explanation in social psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 19(5), 345-368.
• Zajonc, R. B., & Mullally, P. R. (1997). Birth order: Reconciling conflicting effects. American Psychologist, 52(7), 685-699.
• Zajonc, R.B. (1968) Attitudinal effects of mere exposure, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 9: 1-27.
• Zajonc, R.B. and Burnstein, E. (1965) The learning of balanced and unbalanced social structures, Journal of Personality 33: 153-63.

[edit] External link

• Robert B. Zajonc - Faculty page at Stanford

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