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According to the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, audience members will mentally process your persuasive message by one of two routes, depending on their degree of involvement in the message.7 When they are motivated and able to think critically about a message, they engage in central processing. That is, these listeners seriously consider what your message means to them and are the ones who are most likely to act on it. When listeners lack the motivation (or the ability) to judge the argument based on its merits, they engage in peripheral processing of information—they pay little attention and respond to the message as being irrelevant, too complex to follow, or just plain unimportant. Even though such listeners may sometimes “buy into” your message, they will do so not on the strength of the arguments but on the basis of such superficial factors as reputation, entertainment value, or personal style. Listeners who use peripheral processing are unlikely to experience meaningful changes in attitudes or behavior.
You can encourage listeners to engage in central rather than peripheral processing (and thus increase the odds that your persuasive appeal will produce lasting changes in their attitudes and behavior) with these steps:
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“Hybrid cars may not be the best-looking or fastest cars on the market, but as gas prices continue to soar, they will save you a great deal of money.” |
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For a general audience: “The technology behind hybrid cars is relatively simple.” |
| For an expert audience: “To save even more gas, you can turn an EV into a PHEV with a generator and additional batteries.” | |
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“It took me a while to convince myself to buy a hybrid.” |
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“Once I selected the car, I found I saved nearly $2,000 this year.” |