The Elaboration Likelihood Model

This chapter reviews a conceptual framework that addresses the issues by focusing on the key psychological processes relevant for understanding the effectiveness of persuasive communications. It uses the term persuasion to refer to any procedure with the potential to change someone&s;s mind. The chapter discusses the three primary communication factors involved in persuasion: the source, recipient, and message. It turns next to the processes underlying attitude change by applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM). The chapter focuses on the ELM because it has guided the most research on attitude change and persuasion. The theory focuses on how persuasion is affected by recipient elaboration – the amount of message-relevant thinking an individual engages in when processing a persuasive message or issue. According to the ELM, when motivation and/or ability to think are relatively low, communication factors will likely influence persuasion by serving as simple peripheral cues or heuristics.