A discounted message gains persuasive force over time as its source is forgotten.
Hovland and Weiss's 1951 finding. A message from a discredited source has little effect immediately and measurable effect weeks later, because the content outlasts the memory of who said it.
In practice
- A claim heard on a programme nobody trusts is repeated a year later by someone who has forgotten where they got it.
- A rumour dismissed at the time resurfaces in a colleague's reasoning six months on, detached from where they heard it.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- What happens to a message after it is sent