Sleeper Effect: Acceptance Of Incorrect Information

The sleeper effect is a term that refers to the influence that some information you first discarded as false has on you. According to some theories, this effect involves someone who initially ignores a message that does not seem to be credible.

However, sooner or later he ends up believing the information he thought was false. This change may occur due to new external evidence supporting the claim. On the other hand, it can also come from internal considerations that push the person to re-evaluate the information.

This strategy may seem a bit contradictory because one tends to question more information that one does not initially believe in than the information one believes in.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that some of the information stored in your memory will not one day matter, even if you initially thought it was questionable. It starts to get significant when you find other data that makes you change your mind.

Origin of the sleeper effect

In the 1940s, during World War II, governments launched many advertising campaigns to make people see the war in a positive light. Specifically, the U.S. Department of War wanted to know if their propaganda films were effective or not.

With this goal in mind, they developed a series of experiments to analyze how the films influenced soldiers’ attitudes. The results were quite strange. The researchers discovered that the short films did not have an impact on the soldiers’ attitude as they had expected. 

As the films were of an informative nature, they reinforced some already existing attitudes. However, they generally did not make the soldiers more optimistic. The producers and the psychologists had not achieved the goal they created the short films for in the first place.

Oddly enough, after a few months, they discovered that these short films had a strange effect on the soldiers. While they did not change their attitudes toward the war immediately, the researchers noticed some changes nine months later.

For example, the soldiers who saw the film exhibited; The Battle of Britain,  a little more sympathy for the British. Nine weeks later, this degree of sympathy increased. Carl Hovland, a professor at Yale University, called this phenomenon the “sleeper effect.”

As one would expect, this phenomenon has been debated widely in scientific psychology because it is difficult to say exactly whether the changes in attitudes after such a long time should be attributed solely to having seen a short film. 

Some reliable studies show that the persuasive effect of a message is at its peak right after receiving the information. Accordingly, one would assume that the more time that passes, the more the impact will be reduced. Advertisers know this. This is why they often offer a reward to those who make their purchases faster.

Required conditions

For this phenomenon to manifest itself, two essential conditions are needed:

• A strong first impression: The sleeper effect only occurs if the convincing message has a strong first impression. This is because a strong influence guarantees that it will stay in the memory and mind for a long time.
• A message we see as common sense: When the source of the information is not reliable, one will have a tendency to discard the message. Nevertheless, if you find that the source is not reliable after watching the movie, you will be more receptive to the messages and also more impressionable.

Advertisers know this fact very well. For example, they might post an article about the benefits of chocolate and convince people to eat more of it.

At the end of the article, they reveal that the author is affiliated with a company that produces chocolate. So when you get a compelling message before you know the source, you will be more likely to experience the sleeper effect.

The explanation for this phenomenon can be very simple. Some say that your mind forgets that the source of the information was not entirely credible as time goes on. Even then, the information will be preserved. 

This is why you become more receptive to believing data from unreliable sources later, unlike when you first read it.

The sleeper effect is one of the ways in which advertisements and media can persuade you to notice something. It can also make you buy things or vote for a particular candidate. Furthermore, this phenomenon can make you ignore the bad parts of the product they offer.