Why novel ideas have the biggest critics

Repeated exposure to something often increases our trust or appreciation. Psychologists call this the mere exposure effect.

It explains why most of us grow up disliking the taste of coffee until we make it part of our adult morning routine. Or why we’re predisposed to trust people more who look like us.

The mere exposure effect is at play all around us. It even applies to entrepreneurship.

If you share a new business idea with five random people on the street, four of them may not like it. Does that mean your idea is lousy? Or could the mere exposure effect be at work?

Novel ideas are much more likely to face skepticism and criticism for the simple fact that they’re unfamiliar.

At the turn of the 17th century, Galileo Galilei was found guilty of heresy and put on house arrest by the Spanish Inquisition for supporting claims that the sun (not the earth) was at the center of the solar system.

In 1879, Thomas Edison’s lightbulb was ridiculed. Some called it a “conspicuous failure” and “unworthy of the time and attention of scientific men.”

Listen to any episode of How I Built This today and you’ll hear the stories of entrepreneurs who persevered through early doubts and criticism. Friends who said it couldn’t be done and investors who didn’t believe in the product.

All new ideas have their critics. We know this.

But what’s more interesting is that the best ideas – the most creative and innovative – will almost certainly receive a disproportionate amount of negative feedback.

The challenge is learning when we should ignore it.