Explore What The Sleeper Effect Is And How It Works

The sleeper effect is a term that refers to the influence that a piece of information that you initially considered to be untrue will have on you over time. According to certain theories, this effect means that some first announce information they consider unreliable. However, they will eventually change this perception, and see the information as true, or credible. This change may occur due to new and external evidence supporting the claim. On the other hand, it may come from internal considerations that force you to reevaluate the information.

This strategy may seem a bit contradictory because one tends to question information you do not initially consider credible as opposed to what you consider to be true. Still, this does not mean that certain pieces of information stored in your memory will not be important one day, even if you were initially skeptical of its credibility. Information starts to become significant when you find other pieces that make you reconsider.

The origin of the sleeper effect is propaganda

In the 1940s, during World War II, governments rolled out many advertising campaigns to influence the people’s opinions about the war, in particular they wanted the people to see it in a positive light. Furthermore, the US Department of War was interested in finding out if their propaganda films were effective or not.

With this goal in mind, they developed a series of experiments to analyze how their films affected soldiers’ attitudes. The results were quite strange. The researchers discovered that the short films did not affect the soldiers’ attitudes as they had expected.

When the films were of an informative nature, they strengthened certain already existing attitudes. However, they generally did not make the soldiers more optimistic. In other words, the producers and psychologists had not achieved the original goal of the short films.

The sleeper effect is latent

What was more strange was that they discovered that these short films after a few months created a whimsical effect on the soldiers. While they did not change their attitudes about the war immediately, the researchers could see marked changes after 9 months. For example, the soldiers who had seen a movie called ” The Battle of Brittain ” demonstrated slightly higher sympathy for the British than those who had not seen it. 9 weeks later, this level of sympathy increased. Carl Hovland, a professor at Yale University, called this phenomenon the sleeper effect.

As you might expect, this phenomenon has since been discussed frequently and consistently in scientific psychology. This is because it is difficult to say exactly whether the changes in attitudes after such a long time can only be attributed to the showing of a short film.

Certain reliable studies show that the compelling effect of a message or piece of information is at its most influential right after you receive the information. Consequently, you would assume that the more time passes, the more the influence of the information will diminish. Advertisers are well acquainted with such theories. Therefore, they often offer a reward, or an incentive to those who buy quickly.

Necessary conditions

For this phenomenon to manifest itself, there are two important conditions that must be met:

• A strong initial effect : The sleeper effect is more often measurable if the convincing message has a strong initial effect. This is because a strong impression guarantees that the information will stay in the memory and mind longer.

• A message that can be considered common sense : When the source of the information is not reliable, one tends to discredit the message. Still, if you feel the source of a message is unreliable after receiving the information, you will still be more receptive to the message.

Advertisers are very aware of this. For example, they might post an article about the benefits of chocolate in an effort to get people to buy, and eat, more chocolate. At the end of the article, they reveal that the author of the article has affiliations with a company that produces chocolate. So when you get a compelling message you know from the source, you will be more likely to experience the sleeper effect.

A simple explanation

The explanation for the sleeper effect is quite simple. Some argue that your mind, as time goes on, forgets that the source of the information was not completely reliable. But the information itself remains in the memory. This is why you will later be more likely to view information from suspicious sources as more credible later than when you first received the information.

The Sleeper effect is one of the ways ads and media campaigns can persuade you to pay attention to something. It can also cause you to buy certain products or vote for a particular political candidate or party. In addition, this phenomenon can make you ignore the bad sides of a product they offer.