Information passed through a chain degrades predictably, with detail lost and distinctiveness amplified.
Bartlett's 1932 serial reproduction experiments found that unfamiliar details drop out while the story becomes shorter, more coherent and more conventional. Rumour and institutional reporting degrade the same way.
In practice
- A customer complaint about a delayed order reaches the board as "systemic fulfilment failure", having lost the order number on the way.
- A researcher's cautious "associated with" becomes "linked to" in the press release and "causes" in the headline.
- Standing
- Bartlett's 1932 experiments made this a genuine finding about reconstructive memory.
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- What happens to a message after it is sent