Central and Peripheral Processing

By Nathan Briggs

Introduction

The purpose of this tutorial is to help you gain insight into central and peripheral processing. Central and peripheral processing both relate to persuasion. They are important to marketers, because we need to understand how consumers process the information in our message. It is also important for us to understand which form of processing we should use in certain situations. Understanding processing methods will lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior.

Central and Peripheral processing are parts of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. This model deals with attitudes people have toward themselves, others, objects, and issues. Creating new attitudes, changing negative attitudes, and/or reinforcing positive attitudes are a big part of what marketers do. Strongly held attitudes are much more difficult to change than weaker attitudes. "To determine which approach is appropriate, you need to assess the ability, motivation, and opportunity of an audience to "elaborate" (think about) on what it hears" (Hofacker, 1999). The Elaboration Likelihood Model takes a closer look at which types of messages are appropriate for different situations.

Explanation of Topic

First of all, a message has to be of interest to an individual in order for the to elaborate on it. Individuals must have the opportunity to take the message in, the ability to process the information, and they must be motivated to take the message in (Stiff, 1994). The two ways individuals elaborate are through either central or peripheral processing. The simplest for me to describe these processes is by using arrows.

Think of central processing as the straight arrow, taking the direct route. Central processing involves things like factual information that consumers actually have to spend some time processing and evaluating. Central processing is much more involved that peripheral. It involves more cognitive thought (hence the straight arrow). An instance where you probably used central processing was when you were deciding on which college to attend. I seriously doubt that you just decided to come to Western out of the blue. More than likely you gathered all kinds of information about a variety of schools through a variety of sources and you cognitively came up with Western as your final choice.

Peripheral processing takes more of an outside route and sort of goes around cognitive thought: It is more appropriate in low involvement situations not involving much thought. It is more of an unconscious process going "around" one's senses. This is the "easy way" to think about things. It allows you to make a quick decision. Perhaps after you got to Western you and your friends were sitting around talking about ordering pizza. It is highly doubtful that you gathered a bunch of information about the different pizza places in town. You probably just came to a general consensus with your friends and picked a place without too much thought. This would be an example of peripheral processing in making a decision.
An important consequence should be noted about using these different models. Attitude change is more permanent through the central route rather than the peripheral route (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981). This does not mean that all messages should be done through a central route. Different routes are appropriate for different situations, which will be discussed later on.

Both of these processes make up the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), which was introduced by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo in 1981 and refined in 1986. The ELM is a theory in attitude change that "provides a fairly comprehensive framework for organizing, categorizing, and understanding the basic processes underlying the effectiveness of persuasive communications" (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986).

Petty and Cacioppo (1986) give seven postulates, or fundamental principals, of the Elaboration Likelihood Model that may help us to gain a better understanding of their reasoning:

Seven Principles of ELM

1. People are motivated to hold correct attitudes.
2. Although people want to hold correct attitudes, the amount and nature of issue-relevant elaboration in which they are willing or able to engage to evaluate a message vary with individual and situational factors.
3. Variables can affect the amount and direction of attitude change by (a) serving as persuasive arguments, (b) serving as peripheral cues, and/or (c) affecting the extent or direction of issue and argument elaboration.
4. Variables affecting motivation and/or ability to process a message in a relatively objective manner can do so by either enhancing or reducing argument scrutiny.
5. Variables affecting message processing in a relatively biased manner can produce either a positive (favorable) or negative (unfavorable) motivational and/or ability bias to the issue-relevant thoughts attempted.
6. As motivation and/or ability to process arguments is decreased, peripheral cues become relatively more important determinates of persuasion. Conversely, as argument scrutiny is increased, peripheral cues become relatively les important determinants of persuasion.
7. Attitude changes that result mostly from processing issue-relevant arguments (central route) will show greater temporal persistence, greater prediction of behavior, and greater resistance to counterpersuasion that attitude changes that result mostly from peripheral cues.

The first postulate suggests that people will attempt to process the message in order to hold a correct belief about it. But as the second postulate states, this varies among different people in different situations. These different circumstances is what the other 5 postulates and the ELM in general attempt to explain, which brings us back to motivation, ability, and desire/need to process.
"When central processing occurs, message content will influence attitudes more than peripheral cues in the persuasive situation. When peripheral processing is predominant, message content becomes relatively unimportant and persuasion cues external to the message itself affect attitude change" (Stiff, 1994).

Examples of products that might be advertised with a central route in mind would be computers, automobiles, homes, or anything else that involves a large purchase that will have an affect in our lives for sometime to come. Products that might be advertised through a central route would be clothes, beverages, food, or anything that is viewed as a somewhat small purchase that requires little thought. "In general, more detailed, factual, and logical information can be used in high-involvement, central processing situations. Low-involvement, peripheral route situations generally require limited information, such as pictorial ads that allow quick association of the key attribute with the brand (Hawkins, Best, and Coney, 2001).

While the ELM has met its share of scrutiny, the basic concept is most certainly true to an extent, as you will see in the examples that follow. It has become a valuable tool for marketers and anyone engaging in any kind of persuasion. Think about these additional hypothetical examples that might be a part of your life right now. First, you might have a strong opinion about guns and gun control. Whether that attitude is positive or negative, it would take a great deal of central processing before you would even come close to attitude change. However, if you hold a negative attitude about Taco Bell and all of your friends want to eat at Taco Bell, it would not take a great deal to get you to change you mind. More marketing examples follow.

Examples

Example one is an ad for Chevy Impala. This is an example of central processing. First of all, automobile purchases involve rather large decisions in the lives of consumers. People are motivated to collect information concerning their various options. This ad provides them with an opportunity to take in information about the Impala. The ad contains information concerning benefits of the Impala and even directs consumers to their website for more details. It has a somewhat peripheral processing element to it with the large picture of the Impala speeding down the highway, but for the most part this requires central processing.

Example two is a peripheral ad for the video game Silpheed. The vast majority of the ad is an attractive-looking visual scene taken from the game, with additional scenes posted at the bottom. One does not have to put much thought into processing the meaning of this ad. It highlights the claim that it is a "visual feast" and that it is a shooting game. If gamers enjoy shooting games and the ad attractive, then they might go out and buy it without much thought.

Example three is another central processing ad. This ad for Dell computers is highly focused on central processing. As stated before, computer purchases tend to be high-involvement. This ad contains all kinds of information concerning the specifications of the computer. It also describes some of the editing features that can be done on this computer and stresses family usage. There is a website listed for additional information and the bottom of the ad is packed full of information for consumers.

Example four is a highly peripheral ad for Tropicana. It shows a workingman in a working environment guzzling Tropicana with the message "It's One Hard Working Juice." This ad requires very little thought. Most people generally hold a negative view of working and this ad depicts a moment of enjoyment involving Tropicana during the course of a hard workday.

Relevant Web Sites

www.chevrolet.com

www.workingdesigns.com

www.dell.com

www.tropicana.com

www.digitalsprings.com/internetmarketing

www.mhhe.com/business/marketing/hawkins

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~kimjy/elm.html

Test for Understanding

1. Central Processing has to do with...
A. Low involvement
B. Limited attention
C. High Involvement
D. Classical Conditioning

2. Peripheral Processing is related with...
A. Low involvement
B. Strong attention
C. High Involvement
D. Product beliefs influencing brand attitude influencing purchase intentions


3. Which theory is related to central and peripheral processing?
A. HMP
B. ELM
C. NDB
D. OPP

4. An ad with a picture of a beautiful woman and a bottle of beer with no words is an example of:
A. Central Processing
B. Peripheral Processing
C. Both A and B
D. Neither A nor B

5. Who came up with the theory of Central and Peripheral Processing?
A. Hawkins, Best, and Coney
B. Patty and Cappuccino
C. Petty and Cacioppo
D. Drea and Briggs

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Answers: 1. C, 2. A, 3. B, 4. B, 5. C

References

Best, Roger J., Kenneth A. Coney, and Del I. Hawkins. Consumer Behavior; Building Marketing Strategy, Eighth Edition. New York, 2001.

Hofacker, Charles F. Internet Marketing. www.digitalsprings.com/internetmarketing, 1999.

Petty, Richard E and John T. Cacioppo. Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Dubuque, Iowa 1981.

Petty, Richard E and John T. Cacioppo. Communication and Persuasion; Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York, 1986.