The presence of small amounts of some solute elements in gold thin films causes a reversal of the failure site during an electrotransport experiment. The effectiveness of a solute element in accomplishing this reversal is not correlated with melting point, solubility, or atomic radius. However, solute elements that produced a reversal in gold films (sodium, indium, barium) all have low ionization energies. Auger electron spectroscopy revealed that sodium from a microscope glass substrate penetrates through a gold film to its free surface during current stressing or during furnace annealing.