The Elaboration Likelihood Model Of Persuasion Analysis

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM) is a one of the oldest and most referenced theories when it comes to marketing and advertisement. Now a little over 30 years old, ELM was created by two psychologist named Jogn Cacioppo and Richard Petty who in 1986 described persuasion as a dual process. This theory has been reworked and reviewed many times over the years; this paper will focus on the main literature on ELM by its creators and other critics. Years prior to their ground breaking theory, Petty & Cacioppo claimed that there was a core theme in the breadth of research and theories of persuasion available at the time. Regardless of the subject, the research pointed to of one of two cognitive routes which people used to base …show more content…
They argued that choices made through the central route had a lasting effect and were great indicators of future decisions. For times when that did not take place, like when there was a high cognitive load, information went through the peripheral route. Unlike the aforementioned route, the peripheral route used cues from the presented argument. These included things such as the way or the context in which it the argument was presented (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984). In Contrast to the central route they proposed that decisions made through this route did not having a lasting effect on the maker. In 1986 when the Petty and Cacioppo final published the basis of their theory of ELM, they added more detail to the two processes and gave some factors that they believed influenced which route different forms of persuasion would take in a given situation. They broke these influences into 7 different …show more content…
This is the first time elaboration is mentioned. They define elaboration as “the extent to which a person thinks about the issue-relevant arguments contained in a message.” They explain that when circumstances lead people to a high motivation or ability, elaboration will be highly likely. They also believe that people aren’t necessarily motivated enough to “elaborate” or think deeply on every persuasive argument they come across. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no elaboration. From that they form a continuum of elaboration. At one end, high elaboration goes through the central route, and the other goes through the peripheral route. They use this to refute the idea that people only use one route at a time and stated that at time of medium elaboration both route are used (Petty & Cacioppo,