J6: Novelty or Familiarity. A third type of judgment against personal reference points involves assessments of the novelty or familiarity of a current situation (J6 in Table 9.1). Continued exposure to a situation tends to reduce its affective potential, either negative or positive, so that more familiar inputs generate feelings that are less extreme, “Over time, event and circumstances that are stable come to have a diminishing impact” (Kim-Prieto et. al., 2005, p. 272). In a few cases, it may be said that “familiarity breeds contempt,” as an unchanging situation becomes disliked. The review by Frederick and Loewenstein (1999) concluded that the “subjective experience of, and response to, a stimulus depends on more than its current physical intensity; it also depends on the strength, duration, and recency of previously experienced stimuli” (p. 320). In effect, you assess your happiness party in terms of what you are used to.