Salience Patterns, Source Credibility, and the Sleeper Effect

Abstract

The study reported here was designed to test the “spontaneous association” explanation for what has come to be known as the “sleeper effect” of persuasive communications. The data, which partially replicate the sleeper effect, suggest that the course of opinion change after exposure to a persuasive communication is related to (1) whether or not the source of the communication is salient (spontaneously thought of), and (2) whether the source, if it is salient, has an effect adding to or subtracting from the baseline effect of the communication itself.