Sleeper effect

Biological Parallel

Animals initially discount information from unreliable sources but later recall the content while forgetting the source—message and messenger separate over time. The sleeper effect occurs because source memory decays faster than content: your brain prioritizes 'what was said' over 'who said it' for long-term storage. This is efficient compression: storing every message-source pair is expensive, so the brain keeps content and jettisons attribution.