"Play it, Sam"1, again and again: Further instances of familiarity effects in the eurovision song contest

Abstract

Previous research on voting patterns in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has examined the role of various factors in voting, like cultural proximity or reciprocity between countries. Fewer studies have examined the role of less obvious factors in this context. One such line of research has identified familiarity (as a result of mere exposure) effects in the ESC, that is, songs that were more (vs. less) familiar to the voters did better. In the present study the aim was to extend the familiarity attribute to the country that was represented by the corresponding song. Demographic and economic characteristics of countries were used as indexes denoting familiarity or non-familiarity. Familiarity was found to be related to the countries' results in the ESC, whereas non-familiarity was not. The present findings are discussed together with previous relevant evidence with regard to familiarity effects in the ESC. © 2017 Linethemes - Royal Theme demo.