THE TRANSMITTER-PERSISTENCE EFFECT - A CONFOUNDED DISCOVERY

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.