Sleeper effect from below: Long-term effects of source credibility and user comments on the persuasiveness of news articles

Abstract

User comments on news websites are a controversial element of online communication. Various studies have reported the negative effects of comments criticizing the related news articles on readers’ attitudes toward the issues described in these articles. However, these findings are mostly based on measurements directly after the reception of comments. No research has investigated the long-term effects of comments on readers’ article-related attitudes and compared them with the effects of cues emanating from the articles themselves. Therefore, this study transferred the sleeper effect in persuasion to news sites with comment sections. In a 2 × 2-experiment, the persuasiveness of an article was measured immediately after reception and after a delay of 2 weeks. Low/high source credibility and negative/positive user comments served as discounting/acceptance cues. Results suggest that user comments caused a relative sleeper effect of the article-induced persuasion; they affected the article’s persuasiveness in the short term, but not in the long term.