The elaboration likelihood model (acronymised as ELM) of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the change of attitudes. The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in 1986. The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change. The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.
Remark: An argumentum ab inconvenienti is one based on the difficulties involved in pursuing a line of reasoning, and is thus a form of appeal to consequences.
“The elaboration likelihood model (elm) of → persuasion, developed by richard petty, john cacioppo, and their collaborators, is an example of a ‘dual‐process’ approach to persuasion (another example is chaiken’s heuristic‐systematic model, hsm). the elm suggests that important variations in the nature of persuasion are a function of the likelihood that receivers will engage in elaboration of (that is, thinking about) information relevant to the persuasive issue. depending on the degree of elaboration, two different kinds of persuasion process can be engaged – one involving systematic thinking and the other involving cognitive shortcuts. different factors influence persuasive outcomes depending on which process is activated.”
Petty, R. E., & Bri??ol, P.. (2012). The elaboration likelihood model. In Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology: Volume 1
“The elaboration likelihood model states that there are two routes through which persuasive messages are processed: the central route, which provides complete information and is straightforward, and the peripheral route, which uses means like catchy tunes, colors, and celebrity endorsements.”
Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T.. (1999). The Elaboration Likelihood Model: Current status and controversies. Dual Process Theories in Social Psychology
“The elm contends information gets processed either centrally (effortful, scrutiny) or peripherally (heuristics) depending on their motivation and ability to process the information. this chapter looks back on 20 years of research since the ‘two routes to persuasion’ (central and peripheral) was introduced (petty, 1977; petty and cacioppo, 1981). the chapter provides an overview of the model in order to discuss some of the major conceputal questions and confusions that have arisen. the seven postulates of the theory are presented and the research related to them is reviewed. the current status of the elaboration likelihood model (elm) as a theory of persuastion and of social judgment is reviewed. elm overview: in 1977, petty introduced the idea of two routes of persuasion positing that central and peripheral processing occurred. the elm was formulated as a theory about how the classic the source (expertise), message (number of arguments), recipient (mood), and contextual (distraction) variables have an impact on attitudes towards various objects, issues, and people. more generally, the theory can be used to understand how any external or internal variable has an impact on some evaluative or nonevaluative judgement. central-route attitude changes are those that are based on relatively extensive and effortful information-processing activity, aimed at scrutinizing and uncoverying the central merits of the issue or advocacy. peripheral-route attitude changes are based on a variety of attitude change processes that typically require less cognitive effort. they may differ in quantitative or qualitative ways from the central process route. the central construct is the elaboration continuum. at the high end of the elaboration continuum, people assess object-relevant information in relation to knowledge that they already posses, and arrive at a reasoned attitude that is well articulated and bolstered by supporting information. at the low end, information scrutiny is reduced. where one lies on the continuum is determined by the motivation and ability of the perceiver on the issue. the continuum is supported by the idea that people are sometimes cognitive misers (taylor, 1981), but at other times it pays to use more cognitive resources. see summary graph pg 43. seven postulates: postulate 1: the correctness postulate – people are motivated to hold correct attitudes. sumary 1: at the conscious level, people want to hold opinoins that are correct. in the absence of o…”
Kitchen, P. J., Kerr, G., Schultz, D. E., McColl, R., & Pals, H.. (2014). The elaboration likelihood model: Review, critique and research agenda. European Journal of Marketing
“Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to review, critique and develop a research agenda for the elaboration likelihood model (elm). the model was introduced by petty and cacioppo over three decades ago and has been modified, revised and extended. given modern communication contexts, it is appropriate to question the model’s validity and relevance. design/methodology/approach – the authors develop a conceptual approach, based on a fully comprehensive and extensive review and critique of elm and its development since its inception. findings – this paper focuses on major issues concerning the elm. these include model assumptions and its descriptive nature; continuum questions, multi-channel processing and mediating variables before turning to the need to replicate the elm and to offer recommendations for its future development. research limitations/implications – this paper offers a series of questions in terms of research implications. these include whether elm could or should be replicated, its extension, a greater conceptualization of argument quality, an explanation of movement along the continuum and between central and peripheral routes to persuasion, or to use new methodologies and technologies to help better understanding consume thinking and behaviour? all these relate to the current need to explore the relevance of elm in a more modern context. practical implications – it is time to question the validity and relevance of the elm. the diversity of on- and off-line media options and the variants of consumer choice raise significant issues. originality/value – while theelmmodel continues to be widely cited and taught as one of the major cornerstones of persuasion, questions are raised concerning its relevance and validity in 21st century communication contexts.”
Tam, K. Y., & Ho, S. Y.. (2005). Web personalization as a persuasion strategy: An elaboration likelihood model perspective. Information Systems Research
“W ith advances in tracking and database technologies, firms are increasingly able to understand their cus-tomers and translate this understanding into products and services that appeal to them. technologies such as collaborative filtering, data mining, and click-stream analysis enable firms to customize their offerings at the individual level. while there has been a lot of hype about web personalization recently, our understand-ing of its effectiveness is far from conclusive. drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (elm) literature, this research takes the view that the interaction between a firm and its customers is one of communicating a persuasive message to the customers driven by business objectives. in particular, we examine three major elements of a web personalization strategy: level of preference matching, recommendation set size, and sorting cue. these elements can be manipulated by a firm in implementing its personalization strategy. this research also investigates a personal disposition, need for cognition, which plays a role in assessing the effectiveness of web personalization. research hypotheses are tested using 1,000 subjects in three field experiments based on a ring-tone download website. our findings indicate the saliency of these variables in different stages of the persuasion process. theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.”
Bhattacherjee, & Sanford. (2006). Influence Processes for Information Technology Acceptance: An Elaboration Likelihood Model. MIS Quarterly
“This study examines how processes of external influence shape information technology acceptance among potential users, how such influence effects vary across a user population, and whether these effects are persistent over time. drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (elm), we compared two alternative influenceprocesses, the central and peripheral routes, in motivating it acceptance. these processes were respectively operationalized using the argument quality and source credibility constructs, and linked to perceived usefulness and attitude, the core perceptual drivers of it acceptance. we further examined how these influenceprocesses were moderated by users’ it expertise and perceived job relevance and the temporal stability of such influence effects. nine hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using a field survey of document management system acceptance at an eastern european governmental agency. this study contributes to the it acceptance literature by introducing elm as a referent theory for acceptance research, by elaborating alternative modes of influence, and by specifying factors moderating their effects. for practitioners, this study introduces influence processes as policy tools that managers can employ to motivate it acceptance within their organizations, benchmarks alternative influence strategies, and demonstrates the need for customizing influence strategies to the specific needs of a user population. abstract from author copyright of mis quarterly is the property of mis quarterly & the society for information management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. however, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. this abstract may be abridged. no warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (copyright applies to all abstracts.)”
Sher, P. J., & Lee, S.-H.. (2009). Consumer skepticism and online reviews: An Elaboration Likelihood Model perspective. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal
“Online consumers vary in their tendency to believe or disbelieve online reviews. based on an elaboration likelihood model (elm; petty & cacioppo, 1981, 1986), the present study tested the effects of consumer skepticism on online consumers. a total of 278 undergraduates expressed their attitudes about a product in an online experiment. two findings emerged from the results. first, highly skeptical consumers tend to base their attitudes on intrinsic beliefs instead of situational factors; that is, they are biased against certain types of information and indifferent to the message quality. second, consumers with low skepticism tend to adopt the peripheral route in forming attitude; that is, they are more persuaded by review quantity. these findings contribute to the elm research literature by considering a potentially important personality factor in the elm framework. managerial implications are suggested. [abstract from author]ncopyright of social behavior & personality: an international journal is the property of society for personality research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. however, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. this abstract may be abridged. no warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (copyright applies to all abstracts.)”
Cho, C. H.. (1999). How advertising works on the WWW: Modified elaboration likelihood model. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising
“This paper develops a model called modified elaboration likelihood model to understand how people process advertising on the internet. an empirical study verifies the new model by examining several variables influencing voluntary exposure or clicking of banner ads. these variables include (a) level of personal and product involvement, (b) the size of a banner ad, (c) relevancy between the content of a vehicle and the product category of a banner ad, (d) attitude toward the vehicle, and (e) overall attitude toward web advertising. the findings document significant relationships between these variables and clicking of banner ads and support the hypothesized model.”
Allison, T. H., Davis, B. C., Webb, J. W., & Short, J. C.. (2017). Persuasion in crowdfunding: An elaboration likelihood model of crowdfunding performance. Journal of Business Venturing
“This study draws upon the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (elm) to develop and test a model of persuasiveinfluence in crowdfunding. to test our hypothesized relationships, we drew upon a sample of 383 ventures taken directly from kickstarter, coupled with a decision experiment conducted in a simulated crowdfunding context. results suggest that issue-relevant information, such as entrepreneurs’ education, matters most when funders possess greater ability and motivation to make careful evaluations. in contrast, cues, such as adopting a group identity, have their strongest influence among inexperienced, first-time funders, and when requested funding amounts are smaller.”
Lien, N.-H.. (2001). Elaboration Likelihood Model in consumer research: A review. Proceedings of the National Science Council
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“The elm is a model of information processing and persuasion. ever since its introduction in the 1980’s, elm has been frequently cited by scholars from both cognitive/social psychology and consumer research. this paper reviews the application of elm to consumer research over the past decade, with the focus on studies conducted in advertising contexts, effects on brand evaluations, specification of processing mechanisms, and findings that seem to extend or contradict the model. a body of literature is discussed in three domains: antecedents, processes, and processing cues. a brief intepretation for the review and future directons for research are presented.”
Angst, & Agarwal. (2009). Adoption of Electronic Health Records in the Presence of Privacy Concerns: The Elaboration Likelihood Model and Individual Persuasion. MIS Quarterly
“Within the emerging context of the digitization of health care, electronic health records (ehrs) constitute a significant technological advance in the way medical information is stored, communicated, and processed by the multiple parties involved in health care delivery. however, in spite of the anticipated value potential of this technology, there is widespread concern that consumer privacy issues may impede its diffusion. in this study, we pose the question: can individuals be persuaded to change their attitudes and opt-in behavioral intentions toward ehrs, and allow their medical information to be digitized even in the presence of significant privacy concerns? to investigate this question, we integrate an individual’s concern for information privacy (cfip) with the elaboration likelihood model (elm) to examine attitude change and likelihood of opting-in to an ehr system. we theorize that issue involvement and argument framing interact to influence attitude change, and that concern for information privacy further moderates the effects of these variables. we also propose that likelihood of adoption is driven by concern for information privacy and attitude. we test our predictions using an experiment with 366 subjects where we manipulate the framing of the arguments supporting ehrs. we find that an individual’s cfip interacts with argument framing and issue involvement to affect attitudes toward the use of ehrs. in addition, results suggest that attitude toward ehr use and cfip directly influence opt-in behavioral intentions. an important finding for both theory and practice is that even when people have high concerns for privacy, their attitudes can be positively altered with appropriate message framing. these results as well as other theoretical and practical implications are discussed.”
Frewer, L. J., Howard, C., Hedderley, D., & Shepherd, R.. (1997). The elaboration likelihood model and communication about food risks. Risk Analysis
“Factors such as hazard type and source credibility have been identified as important in the establishment of effective strategies for risk communication. the elaboration likelihood model was adapted to investigate the potential impact of hazard type, information source, and persuasive content of information on individual engagement in elaborative, or thoughtful, cognitions about risk messages. one hundred sixty respondents were allocated to one of eight experimental groups, and the effects of source credibility, persuasive content of information and hazard type were systematically varied. the impact of the different factors on beliefs about the information and elaborative processing examined. low credibility was particularly important in reducing risk perceptions, although persuasive content and hazard type were also influential in determining whether elaborative processing occurred.”
Yang, S. F.. (2015). An eye-tracking study of the Elaboration Likelihood Model in online shopping. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
“Abstract this study uses eye-tracking to explore the elaboration likelihood model (elm) in online shopping. the results show that the peripheral cue did not have moderating effect on purchase intention, but had moderating effect on eye movement. regarding purchase intention, the high elaboration had higher purchase intention than the low elaboration with a positive peripheral cue, but there was no difference in purchase intention between the high and low elaboration with a negative peripheral cue. regarding eye movement, with a positive peripheral cue, the high elaboration group was observed to have longer fixation duration than the low elaboration group in two areas of interest (aois); however, with a negative peripheral cue, the low elaboration group had longer fixation on the whole page and two aois. in addition, the relationship between purchase intention and eye movement of the aois is more significant in the high elaboration group when given a negative peripheral cue and in the low elaboration group when given a positive peripheral cue. this study not only examines the postulates of the elm, but also contributes to a better understanding of the cognitive processes of the elm. these findings have practical implications for e-sellers to identify characteristics of consumers’ elaboration in eye movement and designing customization and persuasivecontext for different elaboration groups in e-commerce.”
Petty, R. E., Brinol, P., & Priester, J. R.. (2002). Mass media attitude change: Implications of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. . In Media effects: Advances in theory and research
“Undoubtedly, few social scientists today think that the mass media have the power to sway huge audiences to the extent once believed likely. nevertheless, the technological advances of the last century – from the first primitive radio broadcasts to today’s high speed mobile internet devices – have made it possible for individual communicators to have access to unprecendented numbers of potential message recipients, and recipients to a constant barrage of messages. millions of dollars are spent worldwide each year in attempts to change people’s attidudes about political candidates, consumer products, health and safety practices, and charitable causes. in most of these instances, the ultimate goal is to influence people’s behaviour so that they will vote for certain politicians or referenda, purchase specific goods, engage in safer driving, eating, and sexual activities, and donate money to various religious, environmental, and educational organizations and institutions. to what extent are media persuasion attempts effective?”
Morris, J. D., Woo, C., & Singh, A. J.. (2005). Elaboration likelihood model: A missing intrinsic emotional implication. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing
“The elaboration likelihood model (elm), developed by petty and cacioppo, proposed two routes to attitude change: central and peripheral. the central route emphasises a high relevance of the message to the individual. in the peripheral route, the individual concentrates on heuristic cues like attractive expert sources and number rather than the content of arguments employed by the message to process the message. if these cues produce an attitude change, this change is likely to be shorter lasting and unpredictable of that individual’s behaviour. hence, the cognitive (central) aspect of the elm overshadows its affective (peripheral) aspect, and the underlying suggestion of this model is that an attitude change is mostly reached through cognition as opposed to emotion. this study attempts to show that the emotional aspect is as important as the cognitive aspect. the basis for this conclusion is that even as an individual processes a message cognitively, that cognition has an emotional core. in addition, there is a possibility that content processing (elaboration) gives rise to emotions and that this leads to a longer-lasting change in attitudes.”
Bitner, M. J., & Obermiller, C.. (1985). THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL: LIMITATIONS AND EXTENSIONS IN MARKETING. Advances in Consumer Research
“The elaboration likelihood model (petty and cacioppo 1981) is discussed as a framework for understanding attitude formation and change with regard to products :ind services. the model has a number of limitations, some general and some specifically relevant to applica- tions in consumer behavior and marketing. these limita- tions are presented and discussed along with suggestions for research. despite its underspecification, the tnodel is seen as a useful framework and the authors propose a number of specific marketing modiatars of elaboration iikelihood. in marketing a great deal of attention has been focused on attitude formation, attitude change and attitude measurement with respect to products and services. since 1970, the literature reflects strong interest in the application and development of tnultiattribute atti- lude models (wilkie and pessemier 1973; lutz 1981). lndustry applications have also relied heavily on survey methodologies and multiattribute approaches to measure .ittitudes toward and preferences for products and servi- i:es. the multiattribute method assumes that consumers s.an and do base their choice decisions on beliefs about [iroduct/service attributes. marketing strategies evolving out of this approach to attitude formation fo- cus on analyzing and communicating information about important product/service attributes. at the same time there has been substantial research in marketing to suggest that there are external cues or in- lernal psychological processes quite separate from care- ful consideration of specific product/service attributes lhat may influence consumers’ attitudes. halo effect phenomena (beckwith and lehmann 1975; mitchell and olson 1981), attitude change via classical conditioning (gorn 1982), behavior modification (nord and peter 1980), mere fxposure effects (obermiller 1984), self-perception theory (reingen and kernan 1977), and the application of simple decision rules are examples of this view of atti- lude formation and change. marketing strategies evolv- ing out of this approach focus less on specific product/ service attributes and more on understanding the effects of contextual cues and heuristics on evaluation and de- cision making. these two approaches to attitude formation and change can be classified under what petty and cacioppo (1981; 1983) refer to in their elaboration likelihood model (elm) as central and peripheral routes to persuasion. the model proposes that neither route alone can account for th…”
Douglas, S. C., Kiewitz, C., Martinko, M. I., Harvey, P., Younhee, K. I. M., & Jae, U. C.. (2008). Cognitions, emotions, and evaluations: An elaboration likelihood model for workplace aggression. Academy of Management Review
“We present a model that captures processes leading to aggressive behaviors in the workplace. starting with trigger events, the model outlines the development of aggressive behaviors via three processing routes that vary in their level of deliberate, mindful processing. the model outlines how repeated exposure to trigger events can lead to the escalation of workplace aggression while also highlighting the moderating role of such factors as an individual’s level of self-control and attitude toward revenge. [abstract from author]”
Zhou, T.. (2017). Understanding location-based services users’ privacy concern: An elaboration likelihood model perspective. Internet Research
“Due to the high perceived risk, building users’ initial trust is crucial to facilitating their adoption and usage of mobile banking. drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (elm), this research examined users’ initial trust in mobile banking. the results indicated that initial trust develops along a dual route including the central route and peripheral route. self-efficacy as the elaboration likelihood moderates the effects of central cues and peripheral cues on initial trust. central cues include information quality and service quality, whereas peripheral cues include system quality, structural assurance and reputation. the results imply that service providers need to employ differentiated strategies to build users’ initial trust in mobile banking.”
Fan, Y., & Miao, Y.. (2012). Effect of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Purchase Intention : The Perspective of Gender Differences. International Journal of Electronic Business Management
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“Electronic word of mouth is available to customers in different types of online consumer reviews, which can be used to help them make e-commerce purchasing decisions. customers acknowledge that online consumer reviews help them to determine ewom credibility and to make purchasing decisions. this study uses surveys and multiple regression analysis to create an extended elaboration likelihood model that describes the relationship between customer expertise, involvement, and rapport to acceptance and use of electronic word of mouth in making purchasing decisions. the study focuses on the cultural effects of gender on the extended elaboration likelihood model and purchasing decisions in e-commerce virtual communities. study results show that involvement has the most significant effect on perceived ewom credibility. study results show that perceived ewom credibility has a significant effect on ewom acceptance and intent to purchase. study results also show the male customers have different e-commerce shopping behaviors than female customers.”
Roberson, Q. M., Collins, C. J., & Oreg, S.. (2005). The effects of recruitment message specificity on applicant attraction to organizations. Journal of Business and Psychology
“We used the elaboration likelihood model (elm) from marketing research to explain and examine how recruitment message specificity influences job seeker attraction to organizations.”
Gregory, C. K., Meade, A. W., & Thompson, L. F.. (2013). Understanding internet recruitment via signaling theory and the elaboration likelihood model. Computers in Human Behavior
“In a series of experiments, we investigated the effect of race of source on persuasive communications in the elaboration likelihood model (r. e. petty & j. t. cacioppo, 1981, 1986). in exp 1, we found no evidence that white participants responded to a black source as a simple negative cue. exp 2 suggested the possibility that exposure to a black source led to low-involvement message processing. in exps 3 and 4, a distraction paradigm was used to test this possibility, and it was found that participants under low involvement were highly motivated to process a message presented by a black source. in exp 5, we found that attitudes toward the source’s ethnic group, rather than violations of expectancies, accounted for this processing effect. taken together, the results of these experiments are consistent with s. l. gaertner and j. f. dovidio’s (1986) theory of aversive racism, which suggests that whites, because of a combination of egalitarian values and underlying negative racial attitudes, are very concerned about not appearing unfavorable toward blacks, leading them to be highly motivated to process messages presented by a source from this group.”
Fallis, A. .. (2013). THE ROLE OF ARGUMENT QUALITY IN THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
“Examines the conceptualization and manipulation of the argument quality construct in the elaboration likelihood model (elm). development of a conceptual definition of argument quality; importance of elm to consumer research; components of elm.”
Zhou, T.. (2012). Understanding users’ initial trust in mobile banking: An elaboration likelihood perspective. Computers in Human Behavior