Enjoy it again: Repeat experiences are less repetitive than people think

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• People frequently engage in hedonic activities, with opportunities to repeat experiences being common.
• Traditional assumptions suggest hedonic adaptation leads to decreased enjoyment with repetition and a preference for novelty.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether people undervalue opportunities to repeat hedonic activities.
• To examine the psychological mechanisms underlying enjoyment of repeated experiences.
• To explore the consequences of mispredicting enjoyment from repetition.

Main Methods:

• Seven studies (N = 3,356) involved participants engaging in real-world activities (museum exhibits, movies, video games) once, then predicting or experiencing repetition.
• Mechanisms of continued exposure, such as perceptual fluency and novelty discovery, were compared.
• Participant behavior and choices regarding repetition versus novel alternatives were assessed.

Main Results:

• Participants consistently underestimated their enjoyment of repeated experiences.
• Enjoyment of repetition was better explained by the discovery of new nuances within the stimulus than by increased perceptual fluency.
• Stimulus complexity moderated the underestimation of enjoyment.
• Participants incurred costs to avoid repetition, even when repetition would have been equally or more enjoyable.

Conclusions:

• Current models of hedonic adaptation may overlook the potential for continued enjoyment through discovery within repeated experiences.
• People's predictions of enjoyment from repetition are often inaccurate, leading to suboptimal choices.
• Repetition can offer significant hedonic value, challenging the universal preference for novelty.