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The sleeper effect identified by psychologist Carl Hovland refers to the "hidden" effect of a propaganda message even when it comes from a discredible source. Hovland studied the effects of the Frank Capra World War II propaganda film series Why We Fight on US soldiers. He found that when the soldiers found the source of a piece of information discredible, they would discount it. However, after an amount of time soldiers would forget where a given message originated, but they would still remember the message itself. In this way, information from a low credibility source could increase in effectiveness. In one experiment, students read arguments about nuclear power. One group was told the arguments came from an American nuclear scientist, and the other was told that they came from the Soviet newspaper Pravda. Only the first group showed attitude change in the short term. After several weeks, once the supposed sources of the information had been forgotten, both groups showed the same degree of attitude change. However, note that the sleeper effect has had something of a checkered history since its original conception. The effect is not considered nearly as strong or reliable as once thought, and much of the original research on the effect is no longer cited in support of its existence.
References
Original research:
- Hovland, C. I., Lumsdaine, A. & Sheffield, F. (1949). Experiments on mass communication. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L. & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communications and persuasion: Psychological studies in opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
More recent/critical research:
- Kumkale, G. T., & Albarracín, D. (2004). The sleeper effect in persuasion: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 130 (1), 143-172. [1] PubMed: [2]
- Gillig, P. M., & Greenwald, A. G. (1974). Is it time to lay the "sleeper effect" to rest? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 132-139
- Pratkanis A. R., Greenwald, A. G., Leippe, M. R., Baumgardner, M. H. (1998). In search of reliable persuasion effects: III. The sleeper effect is dead. Long live the sleeper effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 203-18.
- Greenwald, A. G., Pratkanis, A. R., Leippe, M. R., & Baumgardner, M. H. (1986). Under what conditions does theory obstruct research progress? Psychological Review, 93, 216-229. [3]
