The Central or Peripheral Route: How the Elaboration Likelihood Model is still present on Social Media
The elaboration likelihood model deals with the way that a person evaluates information that is presented and how their attitude is affected. In this model, there are two routes that information is being processed. The first route is the central route, which “requires a person to think critically about issue-related arguments in an informational message and scrutinize the relative merits and relevance of those arguments prior to forming an informed judgment about the target behavior,” writes Anol Bhattacherjee and Clive Sanford. The second route is the peripheral route, where Bhattacherjee and Sanford state “involves less cognitive effort, where subjects rely on cues regarding the target behavior.” In the diagram below, it provides a visual example on the differences between the central route and peripheral route as well as an example on how these routes are used in a daily setting:
According to Brooke Miller, three main characteristics are also presented in this theory in different stages. The first stage is the target characteristics, which is about the level of interest an individual takes for a specific topic. For example, when scrolling on social media, I am more likely to follow the central route based for posts regarding topics I am passionate about or interested in, but I would fall into the peripheral route for an article or post that I am not as interested in or passionate about. The second stage involves both message and source characteristics, which talks about how involved a person gets with the topic. When someone is highly involved or interested in a topic, they fall into the central route, but if they are not interested and focus on superficial characteristics, they would fall into the peripheral route. In the end, those that go towards a more central route may be persuaded to change their opinions because of the research they put into something, which creates a longer lasting change compared to peripheral areas where there is the potential for people to change their opinions since they did not properly process information.
After learning about this theory and the different routes and characteristics, it became evident that it is still present on social media. The central route is present in various topics that are discussed online like politics, pandemic information, and other worldwide events. These are topics that should continue to provide qualified resources to back up information that is being stated to the public to minimize spreading false information. When providing reliable sources, this also allows the audience to see the research that has been put into full effect. Additionally, the central route allows for people to be able to spread more information based on what they are passionate about. For example, some influencers are focused on a niche area that they can become an “expert” on through research and interest in influencing others. However, the peripheral route is also seen through influencers and sponsored/advertisement content since there is the potential of a brand deal or sponsorship that an influencer takes that they are not interested in, but do not disclose this information to their audience.
