Clay Chaszeyka
Marketing | Video | Art | Design

Blog

Explore the intersection of science, philosophy, creativity, and marketing with Clay Chaszeyka. Thought-provoking essays that connect data, design, and deep questions about how we think, create, and exist. Ideas at the edge of thought, exploring what we know, how we think, and why it matters.

Curious by nature. Strategic by trade. Obsessed with how things work, and why we fall for them.

The Familiarity Illusion: Why Repetition (Especially on Video) Builds Trust

You don’t need to know someone to feel like you do.

You’ve seen their face in your feed for weeks. They’re always talking directly to the camera. They seem warm, confident, and clear. You’ve never met, but you feel like you understand them. Maybe even trust them.

That trust might be misplaced, but the feeling is real.

This is the mere exposure effect, also known as the familiarity heuristic. It’s the brain’s tendency to prefer things it has seen or heard before, even if only a few times and even if the thing isn’t particularly remarkable.

In marketing, this principle is everywhere. Repetition increases recall. Familiarity creates comfort. And comfort often gets mistaken for credibility.

What Is the Mere Exposure Effect?

First identified by psychologist Robert Zajonc in the 1960s, the mere exposure effect describes how people develop a preference for stimuli they are repeatedly exposed to. This includes:

  • Faces

  • Words

  • Sounds

  • Logos

  • Phrases

  • Even shapes or patterns

The mechanism is relatively simple. The brain is wired to see the familiar as safe. In prehistoric terms, if something hadn’t hurt you the first ten times, it probably wasn’t a threat. Familiarity was a survival signal.

In modern terms, that means you may like a brand slogan more the fourth time you hear it. A product might “look right” just because it’s been in front of you often. Even false claims begin to feel true if they’re repeated enough. This is known as the illusory truth effect.

This isn’t conscious. You’re not telling yourself, “I’ve seen this before, so I trust it.” It happens below the surface.

And nowhere is that more powerful than on video.

Why Video Supercharges Familiarity

When you see someone’s face repeatedly and hear their voice, tone, and cadence, your brain starts to catalog them as familiar.

This isn’t just psychological. It’s neurological. Facial recognition and voice imprinting are hardwired in us from infancy. They’re the foundation of human bonding. Our brains are built to trust the people we know. Video can create the illusion of that knowing.

That’s why video creators often feel like friends.
You’ve never spoken, but you’ve seen them explain things, tell stories, or share advice in your feed a dozen times. They’re not anonymous anymore. They’re familiar.

This is called a parasocial relationship, a one-sided sense of closeness with a public figure. Marketers and salespeople use this effect deliberately. It is highly effective in:

  • Talking-head ads on social media

  • Influencer endorsements

  • Personalized video pitches

  • Course creator sales funnels

  • YouTube personalities with loyal followings

The more someone appears in your scroll, the more they feel like a trustworthy authority, even if you haven’t truly vetted what they’re offering.

How Marketers Use the Familiarity Effect

Repetition is a foundational tactic in branding, but familiarity isn’t just about logos and slogans. It is about feeling known. Here are ways marketers leverage this:

1. Repeating Visual Identity

  • Logos, colors, and typefaces used consistently across platforms

  • Ensures brand recognition over time

2. Repeating Messaging

  • Taglines, phrases, or product descriptions that remain consistent

  • Creates fluency. If a message is easy to process, it feels more credible

3. Repeating Faces (Especially on Video)

  • Using a consistent spokesperson or founder in video ads

  • Builds personal familiarity with the brand, not just the product

4. Retargeting Ads

  • Showing the same product or brand repeatedly across different platforms

  • Often leads to the “I’ve seen this everywhere” effect, which increases perceived legitimacy

5. Organic Social Repetition

  • Posting variations of the same message, product, or call to action

  • Reinforces memory without requiring new creative each time

All of this works. It works so well that people begin to trust without knowing why they trust.

Why Familiarity Feels Like Truth

The human brain equates fluency with credibility. If something is easy to understand, it feels right. If a person’s face is recognizable, they seem safe. If a product or claim has been seen multiple times, it starts to feel accurate, even if it hasn’t been scrutinized.

That’s why repetition isn’t just a memory tool. It is a trust builder.
And for brands, trust leads to conversions, opt-ins, and loyalty.

The danger is that repetition does not require truth. That is how conspiracy theories spread. That is how bad products gain traction. That is how unqualified personalities build authority through sheer exposure.

When Familiarity Becomes Manipulation

The mere exposure effect can be used to build genuine trust. But it can also be abused to create a false sense of credibility.

Here’s where that line is often crossed:

  • Low-quality or misleading products promoted repeatedly by a friendly face

  • Repetitive misinformation that begins to feel like common sense

  • Aggressive ad frequency that wears down resistance instead of earning trust

In these cases, familiarity is used as a substitute for value. The viewer isn't choosing based on insight. They're reacting based on exposure.

Consumers are starting to recognize this. Overuse of the same video face or message can lead to distrust or emotional fatigue. Especially if the substance doesn’t hold up once the initial comfort wears off.

Trust Should Be Earned, Not Installed

Repetition creates a shortcut to trust, but shortcuts aren’t always earned.
As a marketer or creator, this is the ethical dilemma:

Are you earning attention through clarity and consistency?
Or are you using repetition to bypass deeper scrutiny?

There’s nothing wrong with consistency. In fact, it’s essential. But repetition should reinforce quality, not mask a lack of it.

Closing Thought

Familiarity is powerful. It’s why the same faces, fonts, and phrases show up again and again in your feed. It’s why you trust the people you’ve seen on video every day this month. And it’s why you feel closer to some brands than to people you actually know.

But recognition is not the same as truth.
And repetition is not the same as credibility.

So the next time something feels trustworthy, ask yourself:
Do I believe this because I’ve looked into it?
Or just because I’ve seen it before?

If you're marketing ethically, ask your audience to do the same.

HARNESSComment