Beyond First Impressions: The Effects of Repeated Exposure on Consumer Liking of Visually Complex and Simple Product Designs

What the study found

Liking for visually complex product designs tended to increase with repeated exposure, while liking for visually simple designs tended to decrease. Perceived complexity partly mediated the link between exposure and preference.

Limitations

Product designs, not rooms or occupancy. A single experiment; sample and exposure schedule not extracted.

Neurodesign interpretation

The closest experimental evidence that complexity resists the fading of first impressions. Its distance from architecture is large, so it supports a hypothesis, not a rule.

Possible design implications

Hypothesis: visually complex interiors may hold or gain appeal with repeated exposure where simple ones lose it; untested in spaces.

Study design

Experiment

Population

Consumers rating product designs. Sample: not extracted.

Setting

Laboratory

Field

Neuroaesthetics, consumer research

Mechanism

Habituation / adaptation, Visual complexity

Spatial variable

Visual complexity, Novelty

Keywords

repeated exposure, complexity, aesthetic preference, habituation, design

Notes and follow-up

Related records: ND-0151, ND-0059.