The false fame effect is a memory phenomenon, demonstrated by Larry Jacoby and colleagues in 1989, in which an unfamiliar name encountered once under divided attention is later misjudged as belonging to a famous person. On an immediate test no such misjudgment occurs, but after a delay of about a day the earlier exposure produces a feeling of familiarity whose true source, mere prior exposure, the person can no longer identify, so the sense of familiarity is instead misattributed to fame. The effect is understood as a case of source confusion and has been compared to the sleeper effect found in studies of persuasion.
Facts
Core ClaimIn the false fame effect, non-famous names read once under distraction are later misidentified as famous because people misattribute the resulting sense of familiarity to fame rather than to their earlier, forgotten exposure to the name. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Source-monitoring error (Wikipedia)
False fame section
the old non-famous names are often misidentified as famous. This is a source-monitoring error because they have attributed the name's actual origin to a source other than the list where they originally read it.
References section, Jacoby Kelley Brown and Jasechko citation
Jacoby, L.L., Kelley, C., Brown, J., & Jasechko, J. (1989). "Becoming Famous Overnight: Limits on the Ability to Avoid Unconscious Influences of the Past."
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