analyze an advertising campaign (could be a series of ads, or just a single ad; could be either print or television, or both) aand discuss the persuasion tools and methods the advertising
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processing_persuasive_communications_ii.pptxMcm 380: Persuasive Communication
Processing Persuasive Communications II
Introduction
There is little doubt that the cognitive response approach advanced knowledge of persuasion.
It also provided a method to measure cognitive aspects of attitudes creatively.
After a time, though, researchers realized that the approach had two limitations.
INtroduction
Two limitations of the cognitive response model:
First, it assumed that people think carefully about messages.
Yet there are many times when people turn their minds off to persuasive communications, making decision based on mental shortcuts.
Second, the cognitive response approach failed to shed much light on the ways that messages influence people.
It did not explain how we can utilize cognitive responses to devise messages to change attitudes or behavior.
Introduction
In order to rectify these problems, scholars proceeded to develop process-based models of persuasion.
Two models currently dominate the field:
Heuristic-Systematic Model (devised by Shelly Chaiken and Alice H. Eagly, 1989)
Elaboration Likelihood Model (formulated by Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, 1986)
Introduction
Both approaches emphasize that you cannot understand communication effects without appreciating the underlying processes by which messages influence attitudes.
Both are dual-process models in that they claim that there are two different mechanisms by which messages influence attitudes.
Focusing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model because it has generated more research on persuasive communication and offers a more comprehensive framework for understanding communication effects.
ElM – Main Principles
What does the terms ‘elaboration likelihood’ mean?
Elaboration refers to the extent to which the individual thinks about or mentally modifies the arguments contained in the communication.
Likelihood, referring to the probability that an event will occur, is used to point out the fact that elaboration can be either likely or unlikely.
Elaboration is assumed to fall along a continuum, with one end characterized by considerable rumination on the central merits of an issues and the other by relatively little mental activity.
The model tells us when people should be particularly likely to elaborate, or not elaborate, on persuasive messages.
ElM – Main Principles
The ELM stipulates that there are two distinct ways people process communications.
These are called routes, suggesting that two different highways crisscross the mind, transporting thoughts and reactions to messages. [The term ‘route’ is a metaphor]
The ELM refers to the two routes to persuasion as the central and peripheral routes, or central and peripheral processes.
ElM – Main Principles
The central route is characterized by considerable cognitive elaboration.
It occurs when individuals focus in depth on the central features of the issue, person, or message.
When people process information centrally, they carefully evaluate message arguments, ponder implications of the communicator’s ideas, and relate information to their own knowledge and values.
This is the thinking person’s route to persuasion.
ElM – Main Principles
The peripheral route is entirely different.
Rather then examining issue-relevant arguments, people examine the message quickly or focus on simple cues to help them decide whether to accept the position advocated in the message.
Factors that are peripheral to message arguments have an effect.
These can include a communicator’s physical appeal, glib speaking style, or pleasant association between the message and music playing in the background.
When processing peripherally, people invariably rely on simple decision-making rules or heuristics.
For example, an individual may invoke the heuristic that “experts are to be believed” and, for this reason (and this reason only), accept the speaker’s recommendation.
ElM – Main Principles
Thus, the ELM says that people can be simple information processors – “cognitive misers” as they are sometimes called (Taylor, 1981) – or deep, detailed thinkers.
Under some conditions (when processing super-peripherally), they are susceptible to slick persuaders [“There’s a sucker born every minute!”]
In other circumstances (when processing centrally), individuals are akin to Plato’s ideal students – seeking truth and dutifully considering logical arguments – or to Aristotelian thinkers, persuaded only by cogent argument (logos)
ElM – Main Principles
The model says people are neither suckers nor deep thinkers.
Complex creatures that we are, we are both peripheral and central, heuristic and systematic, processors.
The critical questions are when people process centrally, when they prefer the peripheral pathway, and the implications for persuasion.
ELM answers these questions, laying out conditions under which central or peripheral processing is most likely, and the effects of such processing on attitude change.
ElM – Main Principles
The key factors that determine processing strategy are motivation and ability.
When people are motivated to consider the message seriously, they process centrally.
They also pursue the central route when they are cognitively able to ponder message arguments.
Situations can limit or enhance people’s ability to process centrally and so too can personal characteristics.
On the other hand, when people lack the motivation or ability to process a message carefully, they opt for a simpler strategy. They process superficially.
ElM – Main Principles
It is frequently neither possible nor functional to process every message carefully.
“Just imagine if you thought carefully about every television or radio commercial you heard or came across in newspapers or magazines. If you ever made it out of the house in the morning, you probably would be too mentally exhausted to do anything else!” (Richard Petty, 1994: 118)
Contemporary society, with its multiple stimuli, unfathomably complex issues, and relentless social change, makes it inevitable that people will rely on mental shortcuts most of the time.
ElM – Main Principles
In addition to spelling out factors that make peripheral processing most likely, the ELM contains hypotheses about the impact that such processing exerts on persuasion.
Different persuasive appeals are effective, depending on the processing route.
These appeals also differ in their long-term effects on attitudes.
