Impact of the arousal potential of uncommon drinks on the repeated exposure effect

The role of stimulus arousal potential in the effect of repeated exposure on the liking for a food was investigated. Eighty-nine participants rated four uncommon fruit drinks for arousal (novelty, complexity and taste intensity), and were exposed to these drinks over 24 trials. Their liking for each drink was regularly recorded during exposure. Results showed that exposure led to an increase of liking for drinks with a high arousal potential, while no evolution of liking was observed for drinks with a moderate arousal potential but a higher sweetness intensity. It was discussed, whether these results could be explained by two opposing effects of exposure, a positive one resulting from the reduction of uncertainty about the nature of the novel and unfamiliar stimulus and a negative one in the form of a combination of both experimental boredom and a specific stimulus boredom for sweetness intensity.