Page 179 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

168 PETTY, PRIESTER, BRIÑOL

In the central route, once people have had thoughts about the message,
the final step involves integrating the new thoughts into one’s overall cog-
nitive structure. Such integration may be more likely to occur if one’s
thoughts are rehearsed and held with high confidence. It is important to
note, however, that just because the attitude change process in the central
route involves considerable cognitive work does not mean that the atti-
tude formed will be a rational or “accurate” one. The extensive informa-
tion processing activity might be highly biased by factors such as one’s
prior attitude and knowledge or one’s current mood state. The important
point is that sometimes attitudes are changed by a rather thoughtful
process in which people attend carefully to the issue-relevant information
presented, examine this information in light of their relevant experiences
and knowledge, and evaluate the information along the dimensions they
perceive central to the merits of the issue. People engaged in this effortful
cognitive activity have been characterized as engaging in “systematic”
(Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989), “mindful” (Palmerino, Langer, &
McGillis, 1984), and “piecemeal” (Fiske & Pavelchak, 1986) processing
(see Chaiken & Trope, 1999, for a discussion of various “dual-route” mod-
els of social judgment). Attitudes changed by the central route have been
shown to have a number of distinguishing characteristics. Because these
attitudes are well articulated and integrated into a person’s cognitive
structure, these attitudes have been found to be relatively easy to access
from memory, persistent over time, predictive of behavior, and resistant
to change until they are challenged by cogent contrary information
(Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992; Petty, Haugtvedt, & Smith, 1995; see Petty &
Krosnick, 1995, for an extensive discussion of the determinants of attitude
strength).

Peripheral Route. In stark contrast to the central route to persuasion,
the ELM holds that attitude change does not always require effortful eval-
uation of the information presented by the mass media or other sources.
Instead, when a person’s motivation or ability to process the issue-
relevant information is low, persuasion can occur by a peripheral route in
which processes invoked by simple cues in the persuasion context influ-
ence attitudes. The peripheral route to persuasion recognizes that it is nei-
ther adaptive nor possible for people to exert considerable mental effort in
thinking about all of the media communications to which they are
exposed. In order to function in contemporary society, people must some-
times act as “lazy organisms” (McGuire, 1969) or “cognitive misers” (Tay-
lor, 1981) and employ simpler means of evaluation (see also Bem, 1972).
For example, various features of a communication (e.g., pleasant scenery
in a TV commercial) can elicit an affective state (e.g., a good mood) that
becomes associated with the advocated position (as in classical condition-