Sleeper Effect

Abstract

The sleeper effect refers to a delayed increase in the impact of a persuasive message. It is said to occur when the delayed effect of the message is greater than its immediate effect. For instance, recipients of a message may disagree with the message and show little or no attitude change in response. Over time, however, attitudes may shift in the direction of advocacy, especially if the recipients remember the message well but forget the reason for discounting it in the first place. In everyday life, people receive hundreds of messages on a given day. Therefore, remembering the message, its source, and the features of the original learning context becomes quite difficult. Consequently, the sleeper effect should be widely observed in everyday life.