It felt fluent but I did not like it: fluency effects in faces versus patterns

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Person perception is heavily influenced by initial liking judgments.
• Hedonic fluency theory posits that increased processing fluency leads to greater liking.
• Short stimulus presentation durations can hinder perception and liking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of presentation duration on liking for faces and abstract patterns.
• To examine the relationship between processing fluency, liking, and certainty across different stimulus categories.
• To test the applicability of hedonic fluency theory to face perception.

Main Methods:

• Participants rated their felt fluency, liking, and certainty for faces and abstract patterns.
• Stimuli were presented for varying durations (short vs. long).
• Statistical analyses were used to compare ratings between conditions and stimulus types.

Main Results:

• Longer durations increased felt fluency and certainty for both faces and abstract patterns.
• Abstract patterns were liked more with longer presentation durations, consistent with hedonic fluency theory.
• Faces were liked less with longer durations, and liking was not correlated with felt fluency.

Conclusions:

• Hedonic fluency does not universally predict liking; stimulus category is crucial.
• Faces possess a unique status in human perception, diverging from predictions of hedonic fluency theory.
• Optimal face attractiveness may be achieved with brief exposure, challenging traditional fluency-liking models.