Chapter 15 Elaboration Likelyhood Model

In class we talked about how the Elaboration Likely hood model describes the idea that when we receive a message in two different ways and depending on which way we receive it will effect the change in the audience. The following night I was up late watching TV and an infomercial came on for space vacuum bags. I did use the example in class about the "magic bullet" infomercial, but after seeing that infomercial on TV that it really made me think of the Peripheral route. These Infomercials can be so persuasive in a way that they make you feel like you have to have the product that they are selling right that second. They say things like, "if you order in the next 5 minutes we'll take off a payment and add an extra space bag!!". After hearing something like that people tend to make their decision to buy that product before they even give themselves a chance to really think about what it is that they are buying and whether or not they should even buy it. After seeing that I tried to think of an example of something that would be just the opposite of that, something that would cause a person to go the central route. I thought of a high school senior making their decision on what college to go to. This decision is most commonly well thought out and involves a lot of careful thought, seeing as how this could effect the rest of their life. In class we also talked about the idea that peripheral cues can often times motivate someone to use central processing. An example of this that I thought of again was inspired from television. The "feed the children" foundation airs a commercial that shows hungry children from around the world that need our help. I think that often times people see those commercials and say that they are going to help and it makes people realise that the issue of hunger is out there. But typically after a few days or even hours those ideas and thoughts are lost.