Mere-Exposure Effect In The Academic World

Eureka moments are a force in the academic world as well.

Scientists and philosophers are exquisitely sensitive to the advantage of ideas that already enjoy broad familiarity.

In 2014, a team of researchers from Harvard University studied about sort of proposals that were most likely to win funding from prestigious institutions such as the National Institutes of Health: familiar proposals or extremely novel ones?

• Most-novel proposals got the worst ratings.
• Exceedingly familiar proposals fared a bit better.
• The highest evaluation scores went to submissions that were deemed slightly new.