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Petty Cacioppo - Central and Peripheral Routes To Advertising PDF
Petty Cacioppo - Central and Peripheral Routes To Advertising PDF
Petty Cacioppo - Central and Peripheral Routes To Advertising PDF
to Advertising Effectiveness:
The Moderating Role of Involvement
RICHARD E. PETTY
JOHN T. CACIOPPO
DAVID SCHUMANN*
sitions) and inferences (e.g., "If an expert says it, it must tude change must consider thai in some situations people
be true") may shape attitudes or allow a person to decide are avid seekers and manipulators of information, and in
what attitudinal position to adopt without the need for en- others they are best described as "cognitive misers" who
gaging in any extensive thought about issue- or product- eschew any difficult intellectual activity (Bumkrant 1976;
relevant arguments. The theoretical approaches following McGuire 1969). An important question for consumer re-
the peripheral route emphasize factors such as (1) whether searchers then is: when will consumers actively seek and
a simple attitudinal inference can be made based on ob- process product-relevant information, and when will they
sen'ing one's own behavior (Bem 1972; Scott 1978); (2) be more cursory in their analysis of ads? Recent research
whether the advocacy falls within one's latitude of accep- in consumer behavior and social psychology has focused
tance or rejection (Newman and Dolich 1979; Sherif, on the concept of "involvement" as an important moder-
Sherif, and Nebergall 1965); (3) whether some transient ator of the amount and type of information processing elic-
situational utility is associated with adopting a particular ited by a persuasive communication (see Burnkrant and
anitude (Schlenker 1978, 1980); and (4) whether an ad- Sawyer 1983; Petty and Cacioppo 1981, 1983). One major
vocated position or product is classically conditioned to goal of the experiment reported in this paper was to test the
basic but issue-irrelevant cues, such as food and pain (Janis. hypothesis that under "high involvement." attitudes in re-
Kaye, and Kirschner 1965; Stemthal and Craig 1974). or sponse to an advertisement would be affected via the central
is associated with secondary cues, such as pleasant pictures route, but that un(3er "low involvement," attitudes would
and attractive endorsers (Kelman 1961; Mitchell and Olson be affected via the peripheral route.
1981; Mowen 1980). Attitude changes induced under the
peripheral route are postulated to be relatively temporary
and unpredictive of behavior.'
INVOLVEMENT AND
ATTITUDE CHANGE
Unfortunately, none of the unique theories of persuasion
has yet provided a comprehensive view of attitude change. Methods of Stuiiying Involvement
For example, cognitive response theory—an approach that
falls under the central route—assumes thai people are usu- Although there are many specific definitions of involve-
ally interested in thinking about and elaborating incoming ment within both social and consumer psychology, there is
Information, or in self-generating issue- or product-relevant considerable agreement that high involvement messages
thoughts (Brock and Shavitt 1983). Yet. as Miller and his have greater personal relevance and consequences or elicit
colleagues have noted. "It may be irrational to scrutinize more personal connections than low involvement messages
the plethora of counterattitudinal messages received daily. (Engel and Blackwell 1982; Knigman 1965; Petty and Caci-
To the extent that one possesses only a limited amount of oppo 1979; Shetif and Hovland 1961).- Various strategies
information processing time and capacity, such scrutiny have been employed in studying involvement. For example,
would disengage the thought process from the exigencies hoth social (Hovland et al. 1957) and consumer (Newman
of daily life." (Miller. Maruyama. Beaber. and Valone and Dolich 1979) researchers have investigated existing
1976, p. 623). Haines (1974), in fact, has proposed a prin- groups that differed in the extent to which an issue or prod-
ciple of information-processing parsimony according to uct was personally important, or have employed designs
which consumers seek to process as little data as necessar>' allowing subjects to assign themselves to high and low in-
in order to make decisions. volvement groups. These correlational methods may be
The accumulated research on persuasion clearly indicates high in external validity, but they confound involvement
that neither the central nor the peripheral approach alone with all other existing differences between the high and low
can account for the diversity of attitude-change results ob- involvement groups (attitude extremity, amount of prior
served. Thus, a general framework for understanding atti- information, and so on), and thus compromise intemal va-
lidity (Kiesler. Collins, and Miller 1969). Other social
'Our caicgorizalion of the iradUional iheoretical approaches under one (Rhine and Severance 1970) and consumer (Lastovicka and
or the other roule to persuasion is mean! to be suggestive rather than Gardner 1979) researchers have defined involvement in
absolute. For example, the iheorelical process of self-perccplion (Bem terms of the specific issue or product under consideration.
1972) mighi generally lead to altitude change because of a simple inference This procedure, of course, confounds involvement with as-
(peripheral route), bui might also be capable of initiating extended issue- pects of the issue or product that may be irrelevant to its
relevant thinking in other circumstances (e.g.. when personal relevance
is high; see Liebhan 1979). Additionally, we note that the view that ihere personal importance. Finally, some researchers have stud-
are different "kinds" of persuasion can be traced back lo Aristotle's Rhet- ied involvement by varying the medium of message pre-
oric, and thai tbe distinction we have made between the central and pe-
ripheral routes to attitude change has much in common with Kelman's
(1961) earlier view of "intemalization" vs. "identification" and with the ^In the present paper, we use the term involvement to refer to "issue"
receni psychological distinctions between "deep" vs. "shallow" pro- or "product" involvement rather than "response" involvement. In the
cessing (Craik and Lockhan 1972). "controlled" vs. "automatic" pro- former, the attitude issue or the product itself has some direct personal
cessing (Schneider and Shiffrin 1977). "systematic" vs. "•heuristic" pro- relevance or consequence, and people art concerned with forming a rea-
cessing (Chaiken 1980). "thoughtful" vs. "scripted" or "mindless" soned opinion (Petty and Cacioppo 1979), In the latter, the attitude re-
processing (Abelson 1976; Langer et al. 1978). and others. For more sponse is imponam. and people arc more concerned with expressing an
details on similarities and differences among the approaches, see Pcuy altitude that will produce immediate situational rewards (such as gaining
and Cacioppo (forthcoming a). favor witb others) than with forming a veridical opinion (Zimbardo 1960t.
INVOLVEMENT AND PERSUASION 137
sentation. Interestingly, some investigators have argued that likely to fall within the unacceptable range of a person's
television is a more involving medium than prim (Worchel. implicit attitude continuum. Kmgman (1965) has proposed
Andreoli, and Eason 1975), whereas others have argued an alternative view that has achieved considerable recog-
just the opposite (Krugman 1967). nition among consumer researchers. According to this
A preferred procedure for studying involvement would view, increasing involvement does not increase resistance
be to hold recipient, message, and medium characteristics to persuasion, but instead shifts the sequence of commu-
constant and randomly assign participants to high and low nication impact. Krugman argues that under high involve-
involvement groups. Apsler and Sears (1968) employed an ment, a communication is likely to affect cognitions, then
ingenious method to manipulate involvement: some partic- attitudes, and then behaviors, whereas under low involve-
ipants were led to believe that a persuasive proposal had ment, a communication is more likely to affect cognitions,
personal implications for them (an advocated change in then behaviors, then attitudes (see also Ray et al. 1973).
university regulations would take effect while the student As noted earlier, a focal goal of this study is to assess
participants were still in school), while others were led to the viability of a third view of the effects of involvement
believe that it did not (i.e., the change would not take effect on consumer response to advertisements. This view stems
until after the students had graduated). A variation of this from our Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of attitude
procedure was developed by Wright (1973. 1974) to ma- change (Petty and Cacioppo 1981). The basic tenet of the
nipulate involvement in an advertising study. Participants ELM is that different methods of inducing persuasion may
in the high involvement group were told that they would work best depending on whether the elaboration likelihood
subsequently be asked to evaluate the product in an adver- of the communication situation (i.e.. the probability of
tisement they were about to see. and were given some ad- message- or issue-relevant thought occuning) is high or
ditional background information. Participants in the low low. When the elaboration likelihood is high, the central
involvement group did not expect to evaluate the product route to persuasion should be particulariy effective, but
and were given no background information. The back- when the elaboration likelihood is low. the peripheral route
ground information provided to the high involvement sub- should be better. The ELM contends that as an issue or
jects explained the relevance of their product decisions to product increases in personal relevance or consequences,
"their families, their own time and effort, and their per- it becomes more important and adaptive to forming a rea-
sonal finances'* (Wright 1973, p. 56). However, it is some- soned and veridical opinion. Thus, people are more moti-
what unclear to what extent this background information vated to devote the cognitive effort required to evaluate the
made certain product-relevant arguments salient or sug- true merits of an issue or product when involvement is high
gested appropriate dimensions of product evaluation for rather than low. If increased involvement increases one's
high but not low involvement subjects. propensity to think about the true merits of an issue or
product, then manipulations that require extensive issue- or
In the present experiment, participants in both the high
product-relevant thought in order to be effective should
and low involvement groups were told that they would be have a greater impact under high rather than low involve-
evaluating advertisements for products, but subjects in the ment conditions. On the other hand, manipulations that al-
high involvement group were led to believe that the exper- low a person to evaluate an issue or product without en-
imental advertised product would soon be available in their gaging in extensive issue- or product-relevant thinking
local area, and that after viewing a variety of advertisements should have a greater impact under low rather than high
they would be allowed to choose one brand from the ex- involvement.
perimental product category to take home as a gift. Low
involvement participants were led to believe that the ex- Research in social psychology has supported the view
perimental advertised product would not be available in that different variables affect persuasion under high and low
their local area in the near future, and that after viewing the involvement conditions. For example, the quality of the
ads they would be allowed to take home one brand from arguments contained in a message has had a greater impact
a category of products other than the experimental category. on persuasion under conditions of high rather than low in-
volvement (Petty and Cacioppo 1979; Petty. Cacioppo. and
Theories of Involvement Heesacker 1981). On the other hand, peripheral cues such
as the expertise or attractiveness of a message source (Chai-
In addition to the methodological differences that have ken 1980; Petty. Cacioppo. and Goldman 1981; Rhine and
plagued the involvement concept, another area of disagree- Severance 1970) have had a greater impact on persuasion
ment concems the effects on persuasion that involvement under conditions of low rather than high involvement. In
is expected to have. Perhaps the dominant notion in social sum, under high involvement conditions people appear to
psychology stems from the Sherifs' social judgment theory exert the cognitive effort required to evaluate the issue-
(Sherif et al. 1965). Their notion is that on any given issue, relevant arguments presented, and their attitudes are a func-
highly involved persons exhibit more negative evaluations tion of this in format ion-process ing activity (central route).
of a communication because high involvement is associated Under low involvement conditions, attitudes appear to be
with an extended "latitude of rejection." Thus, incoming affected by simple acceptance and rejection cues in the
messages on involving topics are thought to have an en- persuasion context and are less affected by argument quality
hanced probability of being rejected because they are more (peripheral route). Although the accumulated research in
138 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
social psychology is quite consistent with the ELM, it is The present study was a conceptual replication of pre-
not yet clear whether or not the ELM predictions would vious work (Petty and Cacioppo 1980), except that we em-
hold when involvement concerns a product (such as tooth- ployed a peripheral cue that could not be construed as a
paste) rather than an issue (such as capital punishment), product-re levant argument. In the current study, partici-
and when the persuasive message is an advertisement rather pants were randomly assigned to high and low involvement
than a speech or editorial. conditions and viewed one of four different ads for a fic-
titious new product. "Edge disposable razors." The ad was
Central and Peripheral Routes to presented in magazine format and was embedded in an ad-
vertising booklet along with 11 other ads. Two features of
Advertising Effectiveness the Edge ad were manipulated: the quality ofthe arguments
One important implication of the ELM for advertising in support of Edge (strong or weak), and the celebrity status
messages is that different kinds of appeals may be most of the featured endorsers of Edge (celebrity or average cit-
effective for different audiences. For example, a person izen). It is important to note that preliminary testing re-
who is about to purchase a new refrigerator (high involve- vealed that for most people, the celebrity status of the en-
ment) may scrutinize the product-relevant information pre- dorsers was irrelevant to an evaluation of the true merits of
sented in an advertisement. If this information is perceived a disposable razor, but that because the celebrity endorsers
to be cogent and persuasive, favorable attitudes will result, were liked more than the average citizens, they could still
but if this information is weak and specious, unfavorable serve as a positive peripheral cue.
attitudes will result (central route). On the other hand, a We had two major hypotheses. First, we expected the
person who is not considering purchasing a new refrigerator quality of the arguments presented in the ad to have a
at the moment (low involvement) will not expend the effort greater impact on product attitudes under high rather than
required to think about the product-relevant arguments in low involvement conditions. Second, we expected the ce-
the ad. but may instead focus on the attractiveness, credi- lebrity status of the product endorsers to have a greater
bility, or prestige of the product's endorser (peripheral impact on product attitudes under low rather than high in-
route). Some evidence in consumer psychology is consis- volvement conditions. If these hypotheses were supported,
tent with this reasoning. For example, Wright (1973. 1974) it would provide the first evidence that the Elaboration
exposed people to an advertisement for a soybean product Likelihood Model can contribute to understanding the ef-
under high and low involvement conditions (see earlier de- fects of involvement on attitudinal responses to advertise-
scription) and measured the number of source comments ments.
(derogations) and message comments (counterarguments)
generated after exposure. Although Wright (1974) predicted
that involvement would increase both kinds of comments, METHOD
he found that more message comments were made under
high rather than low involvement, but that more source Subjects and Design
comments were made under low involvement conditions.
This finding, of course, is consistent with the ELM. A total of 160 male and female undergraduates at the
University of Missouri-Columbia participated in the ex-
In an initial attempt to provide a specific test of the utility periment to earn credit in an introductory psychology
of the ELM for understanding the effectiveness of adver- course; 20 subjects were randomly assigned to each of the
tising messages (Petty and Cacioppo 1980). we conducted cells in a 2 (involvement: high or low) x 2 (argument
a study in which three variables were manipulated: (1) the quality: strong or weak) x 2 (cue: celebrity or noncelebrity
personal relevance of a shampoo ad (high involvement sub- status) factorial design. Subjects participated in groups of
jects were led to believe that the product would be available three to 15 in a very large classroom. The subjects were
in their l(x:al area, whereas low involvement subjects were isolated from each other so that they could complete the
not); (2) the quality of the arguments contained In the ad; experiment independently, and subjects in a single session
and (3) the physical attractiveness of the endorsers of the participated in different experimental conditions. In fact,
shampoo. Consistent with the ELM predictions, the quality if enough subjects were present it was possible to conduct
of the arguments contained in the advertisement had a all eight experimental conditions simultaneously. This pro-
greater impact on attitudes when the product was of high cedure avoided confounding session with experimental con-
rather than low relevance. Contrary to expectations, how- dition.
ever, the attractiveness of the endorsers was equally im-
portant under both the high and low involvement condi- Procedure
tions. In retrospect, in addition to serving as a peripheral
cue under low involvement, the physical appearance of the Two booklets were prepared for the study. The first con-
product endorsers (especially their hair) may have ser\ed tained the advertising stimuli and the second contained the
as persuasive visual testimony for the product's effective- dependent measures. The first page ofthe advertising book-
ness. Thus, under high involvement conditions, the phys- let explained that the study concerned the evaluation of
ical attractiveness of the endorsers may have ser\'ed as a magazine and newspaper ads and that the psychology de-
partment was cooperating with the journalism school in this
cogent product-relevant argument.
INVOLVEMENT AND PERSUASION 139
endeavor. The first page also contained pan of the involve- • New advanced honing method creates unsurpassed sharp-
ment manipulation (see below). It was explained that each ness
ad in the booklet was preceded by an introductor>' statement • Special chemically formulated coating eliminates nicks
that lold a little about the advertisement that followed (e.g., and cuts and prevents rusting
"The company of Paris, France has just opened an • Handle is tapered and ribbed to prevent slipping
American office in New York City. This ^Hte men's cloth-
ing company originally sold clothing only in Europe, but • In direct comparison tests, the Edge blade gave twice as
many close shaves as its nearest competitor
is now in the process of attempting to enter the American
market. The ad on the next page is one that they will be • Unique angle placemeni of the blade provides the smooth-
testing soon in Tampa, Florida before running the ads in est shave possible
other major cities that will eventually carry their prod- In the weak arguments version of the ad, the razor was
ucts"). The instructions told subjects to continue through characterized as "designed for beauty." and the following
the booklet at their own pace and to raise their hands when five statements were made about the product:
finished. The ad booklet contained 10 real magazine ads
for both relatively familiar (e.g.. Aquafresh toothpaste) and • Floats in water with a minimum of rusi
unfamiliar (e.g.. Riopan antacid) products, and two bogus • Comes in various sizes, shapes, and colors
ads. The sixth ad in each booklet was the crucial fictitious • Designed with the bathroom in mind
ad for Edge razors (the nature of the other bogus ad was • In direct comparison tests, the Edge blade gave no more
varied but is irrelevant to the present study). When subjects nicks or cuts than its competition
had completed perusing their ad booklets, they were given • Can only be used once but will be memorable
a questionnaire booklet to complete. Upon completion of
the questionnaire, the subjects were thoroughly debriefed, Peripheral cue. In the "famous endorser" conditions,
thanked for their participation, and dismissed. the headline accompanying the advertisement read "Profes-
sional Athletes Agree: Until you tr\' new Edge disposable
razors you'll never know what a really close shave is." ln
Independent Variables addition, the ad featured the pictures of two well known,
Imolvement. Involvement was embedded in two places well-iiked golf (male) and tennis (female) celebrities, ln the
in the ad booklet. First, the cover page offered subjects a "nonfamous endorser" conditions, the headline read
free gift for participation in the experiment. Subjects were "Bakersfield, Califomia Agrees: ." and the ad fea-
either informed that they would be allowed to choose a tured pictures of average looking people who were unfa-
particular brand of disposable razor (high involvement with miliar to the subjects. The average citizens in the ad were
the fictitious Edge ad) or thai they would be allowed to middle-aged and characterized as coming from California
choose a brand of toothpaste (low involvement with Edge). to minimize perceptions of similarity lo the subjects (Mis-
A toothpaste ad did appear in the ad booklet, but it was the souri college students). Figure A depicts two of the four
same ad for all subjects. To bolster the involvement ma- Edge ads used in the present study.
nipulation, the page that introduced the Edge ad also dif-
fered in the high and low involvement conditions. High Dependent Measures
involvement subjects were told that the advenisement and
On the first page of the dependent variable booklet, sub-
product would soon be test-marketed in medium-sized cities
jects were asked to try to list all of the product categories
throughout the Midwest, including their own city (Colum-
for which they saw advertisements, and to tr>' to recall the
bia, Missouri); low involvement subjects were told that the brand name of the product in thai categor>'. On the next
advertisement and product were being test-marketed only page, subjects were given descriptions of the 12 product
on the East Coast. Thus high Involvement subjects were categories and were asked to select the correct brand name
not only led lo believe that they would soon have to make from among seven choices provided. .Although we had no
a decision about the product class, they were also led to specific hypotheses about brand recall and recognition,
believe that the product would be available in their area in these measures were included because of their practical im-
the near future. Low involvement subjects, on the other portance and for purposes of comparison with the attitude
hand, did not expect to make a decision about razors (but data.
did expect to make one about toothpaste), and were led to
Next, subjects responded to some questions about one of
believe that Edge razors would not be available for purchase the legitimate ads in the booklet; this was followed by the
in their area in the forseeable future. crucial questions about Edge razors. The questions about
Edge were placed relatively early in the booklet to avoid
Argument quality. A variety of arguments for dispos- subject fatigue and boredom and lo maximize the effec-
able razors were pretested for potency on a sample of un- tiveness of the manipulations. Subjects were first asked to
dergraduates. In the strong argumenls ad, the razor was rate, on a four-point scale, how likely it would be thai they
characterized as •'scientifically designed." and the follow- would purchase Edge disposable razors "the next time you
ing five statements were made about the product: needed a product of this nature." The descriptions for each
140 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
FIGURE A
EXAMPLE MOCK ADS
scale value were: I = "1 definitely would not buy it." 2 to check on the experimental manipulations, and subjects
= "I might or might not huy it," 3 = "I would probably were asked to try to list as many of the attributes mentioned
buy it," and 4 = "1 would definitely buy it." Following in the ad about Edge razors as they could recall. Following
this measure of purchase intentions, subjects were asked to the questions about Edge were several questions about some
rate their overall impression of the producl on three nine- of the other products and ads in the booklet. As a check on
point semantic differential scales anchored at - 4 and +4 the involvement manipulation, the ver>' last question in Ihe
(bad-good, unsatisfactory-satisfactory, and unfavor- booklet asked subjects to recall the free gift they had been
able-favorable). Since the intercorrelations among these told to expect.
measures were very high (average r = 0.86). responses
were averaged to assess a general positive or negative at-
RESULTS
titude toward the product.
Following some additional questions that were consistent Manipulation Checks
with the cover story, subjects were instructed to list the
thoughts that crossed their minds as they examined the ad In response to the last question in the dependent variable
for Edge disposable razors. These thoughts were subse- booklet asking subjects what gift they had been told to
quently scored on several dimensions by trained judges. expect, 92.5 percent of the subjects in the high involvement
Since subjects listed very few thoughts about the product conditions conectly recalled that they were to select a brand
(M = 1.18) and since the manipulations failed to affect of disposable razor. In the low involvement conditions,
this measure, it will not be discussed further. This "cog- none of the subjects indicated a razor and 78 percent cor-
nitive response" measure would probably have been more rectly recalled that they were to select a brand of toothpaste.
sensitive if it had been administered immediately after ex- Thus, subjects presumably realized what product they were
posure to the Edge ad rather than after exposure to all !2 soon to make a decision about as they examined the ad
ads, but in the present study this would have compromised booklet.
the cover story (for an extended discussion ofthe reliability, To assess the effectiveness ofthe endorser manipulation,
validity, and sensitivity of the thought-listing measure in two questions were asked. First, subjects were asked if they
persuasion research, see Cacioppo and Petty 1981). recognized the people in the ad for the disposable razor.
After listing their thoughts, several questions were asked When the famous athletes were employed. 94 percent in-
INVOLVEMENT AND PERSUASION 141
Low High
the people in the ads and the general lack of interest in
involvement Involvement assessing the merits of the product (due to low involve-
ment), reductions in brand recognition may occur. This
NOTE: Top panel shows interactive effect of inwolvemenl and enao'ser siaius on atliiudes
toward Edge Tabors. Boltom panel shows inietaciive eHect ol invotvemerit and arguniierA
finding is similar to the results of studies on the use of
quslily on aTtrtuOes loward Edge razors. sexually oriented material in ads for low involvement prod-
ucts—the sexual material enhances recognition of the ad.
central route will be more predictive of behavior than at- but not the brand name of the product (e.g.. Chestnut.
titudes formed via the peripheral route. LaChance, and Lubitz 1977; Steadman J969). Under high
involvement, however, the use of prominent personalities
enhanced brand name recognition.When people are more
Recall and Recognition Measures interested in the product category, they may be more mo-
Subjects were asked to list al! of the products for which tivated to assess what brand the liked personalities are en-
they saw ads and all of the brand names they encountered. dorsing. The manipulation of argument quality had no ef-
Following this, all subjects were told thai they had seen an fect on recall of the product category, brand name recall,
advertisement for a disposable razor and were asked to se- or brand name recognition.
lect the correct brand name from a list of seven (Gillette, A final recall measure assessed how many of the specific
Wilkinson, Schick, Edge. Bic, Schaffer, and Remington).
The proportion of subjects showing correct recall or rec-
ognition was calculated for each cell. These proportions authors have bugpcsicd thai it may be appropnatc tu analyze
were then subjected to an arcsin transformation (Winer dichotomous data usinf analy.sis of variance without biasing (he resuhs
1971) and analyzed by the procedure recommended by Lan- greatly ( e g . Winer 1971). We subjected our recall and recognition data
ger and Abelson (1972). (scored 0 or I) to A N O V A , and Ihc following si{:nificant effects were
obtained. On the measure of recall of the product catcgor), a main effect
The involvement manipulation had a significant Impact of involvement ( f ( 1 . 152) = 6,42. p < 0.01) and an involvement x
on free recall of the product categor>'. with more high in- endorser interaction (F ( I , 152) = 3.28. p < 0.07) were obtained. On
volvement subjects (81 percent) recalling the product cat- the measure of brand name recall, main effects for involvement (F ( I .
egorj' than low involvement subjects (64 percent; Z = 2.4, 145) = 6.34. p < 0.01). gender ( F ( l . 145) = 7.20, p < 0 008). and
endorser [F (\. 145) = 3.49, p < 0.06) were obtained. On the measure
p < 0.02). Additionally, exposure to the famous endorser
of brand name recognition, an involvement x endorser interaction was
increased recall of the product category under low involve- obtained ( f ( 1 , 152l = 4,04./^ < 0.05). This pattern of sijinilicant effects
ment conditions (from 52 percent to 75 percent; Z = 2.14, is identical to the significant pattern of effects rcponed in the text.
INVOLVEMENT AND PERSUASION 143
arguments for Edge razors the subjects could spontaneously the ad was a powerful determinant of product evaluations."
recall after they had examined the entire ad booklet. Over- These data clearly suggest that it would be inappropriate
all, subjects were able to correctly reproduce only 1.75 of for social and consumer researchers to overemphasize the
the five arguments presented. This was not affected by any infiuence of issue-relevant arguments or product-relevant
of the experimental manipulations. attributes and ignore the role of peripheral cues. Each type
Clearly, the manipulations produced a very different pat- of attitudinal influence occurs in some instances, and the
tern of effects on the recall and recognition measures than level of personal involvement with an issue or product ap-
on the attitude and purchase intention measures. In addi- pears to be one determinant of which type of persuasion
tion, the recall and recognition measures were uncorrelated occurs.
with attitudes or intentions toward Edge razors. This finding According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, personal
is consistent with a growing body of research indicating relevance is thought to be only one determinant of the route
that simple recall or recognition of information presented to persuasion. Personal relevance is thought to increase a
about an attitude object is not predictive of attitude for- person's motivation for engaging in a diligent consideration
mation and change (e.g., Cacioppo and Petty 1979; Green- of the issue- or product-re levant infonnation presented in
wald 1968; Insko, Lind. and LaTour 1976). order to form a veridical opinion. Just as different situations
The present data also argue against using measures of may induce different motivations to think, different people
brand name recall or recognition as the sole indicants of may typically employ different styles of information pro-
advertising effectiveness. For example, in the present cessing, and some people will enjoy thinking more than
study, enhancing involvement led to a significant improve- others (Cacioppo and Petty 1982, forthcoming). However,
ment in brand name recall, but increasing involvement led a diligent consideration of issue- or product-re levant infor-
to a decrement in attitude toward the brand when the ar- mation requires not only the motivation to think, but also
guments presented were weak. the ability to process the information. Thus situational vari-
ables (e.g., distraction; Petty. Wells, and Brock 1976) and
individual difference variables (e.g.. prior knowledge; Ca-
DISCUSSION cioppo and Petty 1980b) may also be important moderators
As we noted earlier, previous research on attitude for- of the route to persuasion. In the present study, subjects"
mation and change has tended to characterize the persuasion ability to think about the product was held at a high level
process as resulting either from a thoughtful (though not across experimental conditions—that is. the messages were
necessarily rational) consideration of issue-relevant argu- easy to understand, the presentation was self-paced, and so
ments and product-relevant attributes (central route), or on. Thus the primary determinant ofthe route to persuasion
from associating the attitude object with various positive was motivational in nature.^
and negative cues and operating with simple decision rules
(peripheral route). Over the past decade, investigators in
both social psychology and consumer behavior ha\e tended *A!ihough not tested in the present study, the ELM predicts thai under
to emphasize the former process over the latter. Consider moderate involvemeni conditions, source infonnation serves neither as a
the recent comments of Fishbein and Ajzen (1981. p. 359): simple cue (as under low involvement) nor is it ignored (as under high
involvement). Instead, source informalion helps a person determine how
The general neglect ofthe informalion contained in a message much thinking to do about the message (Petty and Cacioppo 1981. forth-
. . . is probably the mosi serious problem in communication coming a).
*An anonymous reviewer of this artiete took issue with our motivational
and persuasion research. We are convinced that the persua- interpretation of the effects of involvement and suggested thai perhaps our
siveness of a communication can be increased much more effects resulted because our experimental task overtaxed our subjects'
easily and dramatically by paying careful attention to its con- cognitive abilities. This suggestion assumes that subjects lacked the ability
tent . . . than by manipulation of credibility, attractiveness to evaluate both the source and the message, and iherefore had to chtxtse
. . . or any of the other myriad factors that have caught the one over the other. We find this explanation implausible for several rea-
fancy of investigators in the area of communication and per- sons Firsl. since the subjects paced themselves through the ad txHiklei.
suasion. they could spend as much time as they wished evaluaiing each ad the
'•overtaxed" explanation may thus be more plausible for research in which
The present study suggests that, although the informa- the message is extemally paced. Second, our experinieni included several
tional content of an advertisement may be the most impor- checks on whether or not subjects attended to ihe source and message
information. For example, all subjects were asked if they recognized and
tant determinant of product attitudes under some circum- liked the endorsers appearing in the ad. If the reviewer's suggestion is
stances, in other circumstances such noncontent manipulations correct, we would expect subjects in the high involvement group (who
as the celebrity status (likeability) or credibility of the prod- diligently processed the message conient) to be less likely to report rec-
uct endorsers may be even more important. Specifically, ognizing the endorsers in the ad. and hence to show less liking for the ad
endorsers. However, the involvement manipulation failed to affecl eiiher
we have shown that when an advertisement concerned a the recognition or the liking measure. In fact, subjects in ihe high in\olvc-
product of low involvement, the celebrity status of the prod- mem group reponcd slightly ([hough nol sipnilicantlyi greater recognition
uct endorsers was a very potent determinant of attitudes and liking of the famous endorsers than did the low invoKemeni subjects.
about the product. When the advertisement concerned a Thus high invotvemeni subjects WCR- not overtaxed They recognized and
liked the famous endorsers to the same exieni as did low invohcment
product of high involvement, however, the celebrity status subjects, [t is Just that the product attiludes of ihe hiph involvement sub-
of the product endorsers had no effect on attitudes, but the jects were noi affected by ihis liking, while the produci attiiudcs of the
cogency of the information about the product contained in low involvement subjects were.
144 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
It is important to note that although our "peripheral" titudinal effects under low involvement. In the present
manipulation was a source variable presented visually and study, both attitudinal and behavioral (intention) effects
our "central" manipulation was a message variable pre- were observed under high involvement, which is consistent
sented verbally, neither the source/message nor the visual/ with both models. Under low involvement, however, ef-
verbal dichotomy is isomorphic with the central/peripheral fects were obtained on the measure of attitude but not on
one. Thus a source variable may induce persuasion via the the measure of behavioral intentions. This finding is incon-
central route, and a message variable may serve as a pe- sistent with Krugman's formulation, which expects stronger
ripheral cue. For example, in one study described previ- behavioral effects under low involvement than under high
ously (Petty and Cacioppo 1980), we obsened that a phys- involvement, but it is consistent with the ELM, which pos-
ically attractive message endorser might serve as a cogent tulates a greater correspondence between attitudes and be-
product-re levant argument for a beauty product. In another haviors under high involvement (central route) than under
study (Petty and Cacioppo, forthcoming b), we found that low involvement (peripheral route).
the mere number of message arguments presented may ac- In sum, the present study has provided support for the
tivate a simple decision rule (the more the better) under low view that different features of an advertisement may be
involvement, but not under high involvement, where ar- more or less effective, depending upon a person's involve-
gument quality is more important than number. Similarly, ment with it. Under conditions of low involvement, pe-
a "central" manipulation may be presented visually—e,g., ripheral cues are more important than issue-relevant argu-
depicting a kitten in an advertisement for facial tissue to mentation, but under high involvement, the opposite is true.
convey the product-relevant attribute "softness" (Mitchell The realization that independent variables may have differ-
and Olson 1981)—and a "peripheral" manipulation may ent effects, depending on the level of personal relevance of
be presented verbally—e.g., providing a verbal description a message, may provide some insight into the conflicting
of a message source as an expert or as likeable (Chaiken pattern of results that is said to characterize much attitude
1980; Petty, Cacioppo, and Goldman 1981). The critical research. It may well be that attitude effects can be arranged
feature of the central route to persuasion is thai an attitude on a continuum, depending on the elaboration likelihood
change is based on a diligent consideration of information of the particular persuasion situation. This continuum
that a person feels is central to the true merits of an issue would be anchored at one end by the peripheral route and
or product. This information may be conveyed visually, at the other end by the central route to persuasion. Fur-
verbally, or in source or message characteristics. In the thermore, these two routes may be characterized by quite
peripheral route, attitudes change because of the presence different antecedents and consequents. If so, future work
of simple positive or negative cues, or because of the in- could be aimed at uncovering the various moderators of the
vocation of simple decision rules which obviate the need route to persuasion and at tracking the various consequents
for thinking about issue-relevant arguments. Stimuli that of the two different routes.
serve as peripheral cues or that invoke simple decision rules
may be presented visually or verbally, or may be part of
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