In four studies, Boninger, Brock, Cook, Gruder, and Romer (1990) found
that attitude change following exposure to a persuasive message persi
sted longer if recipients were expecting to have to transmit the messa
ge to someone else. The present experiment demonstrated that this effe
ct obtains only if the people preparing to transmit, as was the case i
n the studies of Boninger et al., are denied the opportunity to do so.
It is argued, then, that the findings of Boninger et al. may be attri
butable to a tendency toward thought perseveration triggered by the fa
ilure to complete the transmission task, rather than being a consequen
ce of the preparation to transmit per se.