Harris must awaken the nation from the 'sleeper effect' at the debate with Trump—and dispel the oft-repeated falsehood that the booming U.S. economy isn’t doing so well

(Credit: Chris duMond—Getty Images)

Writing in the journal Public Opinion 1951, Yale researchers Carl Hovland and Walter Weiss labeled their postwar studies on the trick of persuasive messaging regardless of the truth as “the sleeper effect.” They found that a message lingers through repetition, even if factually unfounded.

Now just days away from the historic debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Harris debate prep must consider how to counter the tidal wave of misinformation at this first meeting between these two leaders. And how to respond when Trump falsely claims, as he just did in Michigan again, “Over the past four years, Kamala and crooked Joe Biden have presided over an economic reign of terror, committing one financial atrocity after another. As Vice President, Kamala cast the deciding votes that caused the worst inflation in American history. You’re all victims of it. We all are.”