Research suggests that participants who read user comments after reading an online source's article showed a relative sleeper effect for user comments in a post-test, but not a sleeper effect for the source's credibility.

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- Presentation of source followed by comments

Examples of the Differential Decay Hypothesis

Heinbach, D., Ziegele, M., & Quiring, O. (2018). Sleeper effect from below: Long-term effects of source credibility and user comments on the persuasiveness of news articles. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4765–4786. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818784472

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