Nhung Nguyen

Key scholars

• Richard Petty
• John Cacioppo

Seminal reading(s)

• Cacioppo,J.I., Petty, R.E. (1979). “Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive responses, recall, and persuasion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 37, 97-109
• John T. Cacioppo and Richard E. Petty (1984) ,”The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion”, in NA – Advances in Consumer Research Volume 11, eds. Thomas C. Kinnear, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 673-675.
• Y. Wu, J. Wong, Y. Deng and K. Chang, “An Exploration of Social Media in Public Opinion Convergence: Elaboration Likelihood and Semantic Networks on Political Events,” 2011 IEEE Ninth International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Sydney, NSW, 2011, pp. 903-910
• Flynn, B. S.; Worden, J. K.; Bunn, J. Y.; Connolly, S. W.; Dorwaldt, A. L. (2011). “Evaluation Of Smoking Prevention Television Messages Based On The Elaboration Likelihood Model”. Health Education Research. 26 (6): 976–987.

Key concepts

• Central Route
• Peripheral Route
• High Level
• Low Level
• Motivation

Main premises

This is a theory that is foundational in psychology. The theory was created by Petty and Cacioppo and suggests that there are two different ways people are persuaded. It essentially boils down to this: if a person is approached amicably, if little is distracting the conversation and the conversation stays on topic, “elaboration” is highly likely. On the other hand, if someone knows they are discussing something counter to what they believe, the conversation strays and is during a distracting time, “elaboration” is not highly likely. How strongly a person is persuaded depends on how invested a person is in the topic. A person who is strongly motivated and has time to think through a decision is persuaded through what is referred to as the central route. A person who is persuaded through the central route is less susceptible to attempts to change their mind later.  A person who is rushed or the decision is less important to them is persuaded through the peripheral route. The route to a person’s persuasion is influenced by how much cognitive effort they have to put into making a decision. A person with high levels of elaboration is more likely to think through things carefully. A person with low levels of elaboration is less likely to think things through. Low-level elaboration may be affected by how distracted a person is.

 Common methods

• Experimentation
• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Observation
• In-depth Interviews

Limitations

There are arguments about whether there are more than two levels of persuasion or if there is only one level of persuasion.  This theory and a person’s level of motivation plays a key role in determining whether a person will be motivated.  Using questionnaires and surveys may limit determining a person’s motivation. The only way to truly know people’s levels of opinion strength is through in-depth interviews. 

Developments

Marketing research has used this to find out whether using well-known celebrities has an effect on a person’s decision to purchase a product.  This is also used in marketing when positive sources are used to help make a person’s decision.  Using facts and testimonials may be helpful in swaying a person to make a decision to purchase a product.

In social media it was tested to see how Tweets play an effect in politics. It was found that more informative Tweets have a more consistent effect in persuasion than less informative or partisan Tweets. In the media this has been studied in relation to how messages on television can play an effect on whether people will be persuaded to stop or start a habit. For instance, it was used to find out the persuasive power smoking and eating disorder advertising would have on a person’s decision to eat or smoke. This theory could also be explored in the modern day media world with how partisan our country has become. For example, how often and why people change their opinions, if at all, considering that appears to be something that doesn’t happen as often in 2020.

Typical research questions

• How relevant is the issue to a person?
• How will an issue affect me?
• How strong of an opinion do you hold on x?
• How open to new ideas are you?

*This is the series of theories from KU’s Jour801 Course- Communication Theories