Elaboration Likelihood Model: The secret behind effective writing
By: Emmanuel Kavarnos
Tags: Design Thinking, Content Writing, Content, Engagement, Effective Communication

Everyone out there wants to be heard, right? Everyone wants their story to stand out. From individuals to small businesses and large corporations, everyone wants to accomplish specific targets (e.g., raise awareness, engage, educate) through sharing purposeful content. Since we’re getting exposed to a plethora of info sources and at the same time tones of content is being consumed more than ever before, the attention span has been significantly decreased. It may be irrational to scrutinize the plethora of counterattitudinal messages received daily. Thus, we should all agree it’s vital for content creators to place special focus on how audiences process messages.

The Motivation & Ability of the receiver determine whether the elaboration will be high or low.

One of the leading theories regarding how people “digest” messages is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), developed by Richard E Petty & John T Cacioppo in 1980. By elaborating in a persuasion context, we mean the extent to which a person thinks about the issue-relevant arguments in a message.

The theory is pretty simple: to evaluate any message, a person must be motivated & able to assess its merit.

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

According to the theory, there are two routes the receiver follows when evaluating a message. When a lot of thought goes into analyzing the message, the central route to persuasion is used. Nonetheless, sometimes people just don’t have the time or the mental capacity to put in a great deal of thought. In this case, the peripheral route to persuasion is used.

Central vs Peripheral route: Head-to-head

These are the steps when forming or changing an attitude:

1. The audience comes into contact with a persuasive message.

2. Then, the motivation comes into play. Motivation is highly associated with personal relevance and the need for cognition. If the individual does not have the drive to consider and interpret the message thoughtfully, the peripheral route is taken.

3. If motivation exists, then the next question is ability. The receiver’s prior knowledge and the message’s comprehensibility have a huge impact on ability. Again, if the receiver is not able to engage, the peripheral route is used.

4. When conditions foster the receiver’s motivation & ability to consider a persuasive message, the elaboration likelihood is said to be high.

Even if the receiver feels motivated and able to evaluate the message, the peripheral cues are used if neutral thoughts predominate. However, if the person feels something other than neutral about the message (either favorable or unfavorable thoughts predominate), the central route is taken!

Comparing the two anchoring endpoints on the elaboration likelihood continuum, the central route leads to either positive or negative attitude change, which is relatively enduring and predictive of behavior. On the other hand, the peripheral attitude shift is relatively temporary and unpredictive of behavior.

A brief conclusion

Inarguably, it’s all about the audience.

Bear always in mind that your content should be “digestible” and engaging for both routes (central & peripheral). It’s important thinking since it reflects the pressures we’re all under to do more with less time.