Elaboration likelihood model and petty Flashcards
Who introduced the elaboration likelihood model?
Petty and Cacippos (1981)
What is the elaboration likelihood model?
A theory of persuasion that states the impact of a message on attitude/behaviour change depends on whether the recipient processes the message through the central route or the peripheral route.
What is the central route?
The recipe can’t processed the content of the message because they’re interested, motivated and cognitively able
What is the peripheral route?
The recipe can’t attends to non-content factors (e.g, attractiveness of the source) because they’re uninterested in the source or unable to cognitively process it.
What other factors influence what route it chosen?
If an attractive celebrity is associated with the message the route will be peripheral however if the celebrity/attractive person actually highlights the content, encouraging the audience to pay attention to it the route will be central
What are individual differences that influence what route it taken.
Need for cognition (NFC) if someone has a high NFC they are motivated to think about issues and enjoy analysing arguments. Therefore will be most persuaded through the central route.
What is the aim of Petty et al 1981 study?
To see if high involvement lead to attitude change through persuasion by the central route and low involvement by the peripheral route?
What is the procedure of Petty et al 1981 study?
American university students heard a message suggesting a ‘comprehensive exam’ should be introduced which all students would have to pas in order to graduate. Each student was given a further message which differed in these ways:
-Some were told exams would be introduced in the following year (high personal relevance), others were told ten years (low relevance)
-Some were told the message was produced by an expert, others by someone who was not an expert
-For some message contain strong arguments (facts, statistics) and for weak arguments (opinions)
The students attitudes were measured by rating the concept of a comprehensive exam and the extent to which they agreed with it.
What is the findings of Petty et al 1981 study?
When personal involvement was high the main factor influencing it was the quality of the argument (facts, statistics)
When personal involvement was low quality of the arguement had no significance but expertise did.
What is the conclusion of Petty et al 1981 study?
When an issue is personally relevant the central route is more persuasive. When an issue is not relevant , peripheral cues are more influential
What are the strengths of Petty et al study 1981?
- Can make health messages more persuasive for ‘hard-to-reach’ groups e.g. children. This is by using peripheral cues (use celebrity) and central route (give facts and statistics)
- Had a big influence on the field of persuasion research and helped further research
What are the weaknesses of Petty et al study 1981?
- Does not really explain how persuasive messages affect attitudes and behaviour and the underlying reason this happens. This makes it hard to use the ELM to predict actual behaviour change (e.g. whish processing route is the most persuasive in a given situation)
- Participants were university students and could have better cognitive abilities to findings may not be representative for the population as a whole.
