Elaboration Likelihood Model

Petty and Cacioppo describe a trade-off between the central processing and peripheral processing routes of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks, 2015.  What they mean is that if someone is processing a persuasive message centrally, they will not likely be relying on peripheral cues.  But if peripheral cues are strong in a message, a person will likely not be thinking too deeply about the message or take it seriously.  I will provide an example of this from my public speaking class. 

                In my public speaking class my sophomore year, part of our speaking assignments was trying to sell a random item from a box provided by the professor extemporaneously.  My sophomore year, I was terrified of being in a public speaking class; I could public speak in other classes with preparation but being in a class that solely focused on public speaking and doing speeches without preparation was a huge challenge for me.  One of our assignments, as said, was trying to persuade the class to buy an item from a box.  We didn’t know the item until we were in front of the class—mine was a skateboard.  I struggled through my speech trying to sell a skateboard to my classmates, relying on a college student perspective: faster transportation to class than walking, cheap, durable, customize with Justin Bieber’s face on the front… It wasn’t that great of a speech.  Obviously the class wasn’t actually going to buy the skateboard because it was a class activity but if they were they definitely would not have bought it from me.  My classmates used their peripheral route to process my speech; they could all tell I was nervous and fidgety and I didn’t have the best examples.  They laughed at my Justin Bieber joke, but they weren’t about to go out and buy a skateboard.  My speech didn’t have a chance of persuading my peers because I did not engage them in a central processing route.  My other classmates did a great job of selling their items and could have had a potential in selling an item had it been outside of class and different circumstances, but it was safe to say I definitely couldn’t.  My persuasive message got as far as the peripheral route.

References

Griffin, E. A., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

picture from: https://www.google.com/?espv=2#tbm=isch&q=justin+bieber+skateboard+deck&imgrc=LZNS2c6DQYDxSM%3A