Exposure Effect

Sup my peoples. Notice the absence of blog post updates. This can be attributed to the increasingly atrocious nature of Ausmat. Being in Ausmat, takes real consistency. Gone are the days of SPM; fun fun fun fun for months on end, and only study crazily when exams are around the corner. Now, the steady flow of tasks keeps me on edge. Every task; must score MAXIMUM! Competition here is also insane. Well done, ranking-based Ausmat. Just brought out the best (and worst) in everyone. So, 99.95... Probably too much to ask. It's good to aim high, but not too high, especially when it is seemingly unattainable. Optimists might say otherwise, but they are the ones who will go into spiralling depression when all their goals are not achieved. Therefore, I'll try to keep my goal in the high 90s. All for the sake of Auckland, Otago, Canterbury.

Many people can't wait for Ausmat to end. Well, I think that time is flying fast past us as it is. It's already what? April? Yeah, I've already completed 53% of my time in Sunway, but talking qualitatively, it's only been about 35% done. :/

That brings me (or does it?) to my title. The exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon, whereby people tend to develop attraction to something or someone due to the element of familiarity. In the context of interpersonal relationships, it can basically be said that : the more you see/spend time with someone, the closer you get, and the more pleasing and likeable that individual appears. 


As a HSBC (Human Social Behaviourist), this may seem obvious enough, maybe to the point of this concept being tautology. However, deeper analysis to interpersonal relationships reveal startling results. For one; out of sight, out of mind.

So, where does this all bring us? Or bring me? If you want to forget someone, it doesn't help that you share multiple classes or meet each other 5 days a week. The exposure effect is just too strong for the bond to be broken. Therefore, one has to rely on the converse of the exposure effect. Hoping that 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' does not hold truth at all. Therefore, while the breaking of chemical (or interpersonal) bonds may exert a little pain at first, time will heal most things, turning the fresh wounds of this broken link into long forgotten, and disappearing scars that can be overlooked. Just like the scratch that Lampard ( cat, not the human) deployed on my hand. It is now fading. Although I remember Lampard when I see that scar, in 5 to 10 years, you probably will catch me saying "Scar? What scar? Lampard? Frank Lampard?"

And that is the exposure effect from the point of view of a HSBC.