Abstract
This study explored the everyday life incidence and nature of what we refer to as déjà connu experiences, i.e., situations where a newly encountered individual reminds the perceiver of someone else. The data were obtained in a survey of (250 women and 250 men) college students. The universality of déjà connu was indicated by significant differences in selection of the Very Often (9.4%), Often (25 8%), Occasionally (50.6%), Rarely (14.2%), and Never (0%) categories on a forced-choice item concerning frequency of such experiences. An inverted-U hypothesis is suggested as an heuristic model to describe the relationship between familiarity with any given individual and that person's “remembered other” referent value for the perceiver.
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