Having a preference is favoring something over other options. It is human nature to have a preference. People prefer certain colors, foods, subjects, and even other people. What one person enjoys may not be as favorable to another. 

It’s pretty common knowledge that no person is the exact same as another, so obviously people will have different preferences—but what causes people to like different things? How do people develop their preferences? 

Experiences 

Imagine a man is buying a new car because his old one broke down. Even though he has owned several Toyota cars throughout his life, he decided to go and buy a BMW because they were having an amazing sale on new models. After a few weeks, he realizes that he prefers his Toyota because that is what he is used to driving.

Previous experiences teach a person what they like and dislike. The man may have liked his old Toyota because those cars had a more classic feel than the BMW he just bought; his experience with Toyotas shapes his current views on the BMW.

Sometimes, preference also stems from familiarity. Repeated experience in certain scenarios may cause a person to develop a preference for those situations because they are familiar to them. People tend to seek the things that they are used to. That instinct to pursue the familiar is called the Mere Exposure Effect. 

According to an article on Decision Lab, the mere exposure effect causes humans to “prefer things we have been exposed to in the past, and our preference increases as our exposure does.”

As the article states, increased exposure can increase preference for something. Since the man buying the new car has had repeated experience with Toyota cars, he may have developed a fondness for Toyota cars. 

Social Aspects 

The people we are around tend to sway our preferences in certain ways. Friends can introduce us to new things that can develop our interests. 

Imagine a girl wants to go out for dinner with her friends. All of her friends discuss in the group chat that they want to go eat at the new restaurant that opened down the street. Even though she initially didn’t want to go, her friends encouraged her to tag along, and she found she really enjoyed the food at the restaurant. 

That push from her friends influenced her feelings about the restaurant, eventually getting her to try it. A study by Pubmed published in Developmental Psychology determined that teenagers were more likely to like something if their mothers or friends rated it highly. The study suggests that a friend’s preference can influence a person’s preference if that friend highly recommends something. 

Social influence can affect people’s preferences by exposing them to new experiences and opportunities outside of what a person normally knows. Friends alone aren’t likely to influence a person’s decision; that person has to experience it for themselves and come to their own conclusion, but relationships can influence a person to try something new that they can develop a preference for. 

Nostalgia and Emotions

Nostalgia, according to Merriam-Webster, is the “pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing that you could experience it again.” Nostalgia carries an emotional weight that can gravitate people towards certain preferences. 

The easiest way to describe nostalgia is a familiar experience of something from the past. Familiarity is important when developing preferences because people’s decisions tend to sway towards what they know. Because nostalgia is familiar to people, people tend to try and experience those feelings again. 

According to a national geographic article“Familiar media from our past brings us emotional comfort.” After that quote, the article goes on to provide an example of people consuming nostalgia in a situation where they may need emotional comfort. In 2020, COVID-19 was a crisis situation that quarantined many people.  In that time of crisis, people turned to nostalgia. Nostalgia provided emotional comfort and made a bad time feel better. 

That emotional comfort can draw people to things that make them feel better, leading them to prefer things that make them experience the familiar feeling. 

How do people develop their preferences? 

People’s preferences are developed by previous experiences and influences in their lives. As people continue to live, their preferences can develop and change as they do. With new and hopefully different experiences and friends to influence them, people will continue to form new opinions and preferences.