Elaboration Likelihood Model

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

A theory that how attitudes form and change depends on involvement.

What it is

Highly involved people take a central route, weighing relevant message content, while low-involvement people take a peripheral route, forming impressions from easy cues whether or not they are relevant. So detailed factual arguments suit high involvement and quick visual associations suit low involvement. On this site it is read alongside Persuasion Knowledge, Source Credibility and Iconic Rote Learning.

In effect

Low-involvement products need visual advertisements that tie the key attribute to the brand at a glance.

What it does not say

It is not the same thing as Persuasion Knowledge, which sits close to it on this site but describes a different part of how people decide. It also does not say that the finding reaches every product, buyer or setting; where this page goes beyond the cited research, the step is an inference and is labelled as one.

Sources

  1. Of the University of Missouri at the time, per the book.
  2. Co-author with Elaine Hatfield and Richard Rapson of Emotional Contagion.