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memory
A message you reject today can change your mind later.
People who initially dismiss a persuasive argument often find it more convincing as time passes.
This is the sleeper effect. You eventually forget the unreliable source of the information while retaining the message itself, causing the content to lose its original label of 'untrustworthy.'
Your brain separates information from its origin as memories fade.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Hovland, Lumsdaine, and Sheffield, 1949
- What the check found
- The attribution to Hovland et al. (1949) is correct; they observed this phenomenon in military training film studies. However, the effect is conditional rather than a universal law of persuasion.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.