User:Plizington/Elaboration likelihood model

The elaboration likelihood model is an attitude-based study, that has two different routes to persuasion, central and peripheral.

A 2022 study conducted by researchers at China’s Northwest University and the University of Science and Technology Beijing used the central route and peripheral route of the ELM to analyze two stages of the product adoption process, first adoption and post-adoption, in online health communities. Technical and interpersonal quality of doctors' medical service were regarded as cues to the central route, whereas electronic word-of-mouth was regarded as a cue to the peripheral route. Interaction quality and electronic word of mouth had a significant impact on the first adoption of physician services, however, information quality did not, which proved inconsistent with the ELM. Researchers concluded these inconsistencies may have been from users' lack of knowledge in certain fields, including the validity of certain health-related information. The quality of the physicians in online health communities impacts the patient's perception of the physician and the information received, as consistent with interaction quality under the central route of the ELM. Another possible explanation was different levels of information quality from different methods. Online bookings with service in physical hospitals had the highest information quality, however, patients who did not want to go to physical hospitals found telephone service to have sufficient information quality.

Another study conducted in early 2024 by Junjie Shi looked at product placement within Bilibili science videos. Bilibili, a Chinese service which functions like a cross between Twitch and YouTube, using aspects of both platforms. This study examined how the success of a video contributed to a product's purchase. The study analyzed 511 science-related videos on Bilibili, employing ELM to examine factors such as video thumbnails, creator identity, and production. The study found the more credible or more viewed videos with a product strategically placed in it ended up having a higher chance of a product being remembered or bought. Concluding that video creators should focus on creating short, well produced videos. These ideas align with the central route of the ELM, as people prefer shorter and more concise content over lengthier videos, making them more willing to engage.

A more recent study in 2023, looked at the effects of live streamers on people's online shopping habits. This study conducted by Xi Luo, Jun-Hwa Cheah, and Linda D. Hollebeek on over 750 millennials in China, and their online spending habits. The study applied the ELM to online livestream shopping, by looking at how millennials would react to different customers' impulsive spending tendencies, ways the people got persuaded, and how different information influenced decisions. With the continuous advancements in live streaming, it's become a bigger aspect of everyday life. Streamers are able to make a living and impact people's lives from the comfort of their own homes. The streamers engagement levels, viewership, and credibility are all aspects examined to see how the ELM affects consumers buying habits. The study showed streamers with a higher viewership, more engagement, and more credibility were more likely to sell a product as opposed to a smaller creator. The study also showed that online shopping, especially due to streaming caused for a higher increase in impulse buys. Impulse buying is especially more prevalent in developing economies like China and India. Because of all the exposure to new items from social media, online shopping has grown exponentially over the past couple of years. The streaming market has become oversaturated because of this, and is clearly shown in the study which concluded that, “approximately 1.23 million streamers are struggling with low conversion rates on selling products.” Many people are pursuing careers in streaming due to its chance of rapid success and top rate pay if they can reach the upper enchalant of streamers. Big streamers are able to succeed because of the impulsive purchasing nature of online stream shopper, so they promote a variety of ads that appeal to their audience the most.

In Social Media

With the continuous growth of social media within our society the ELM has been studied in regard to persuasion and attention across a variety of social media platforms. Social media has one variable to it which is dependent on the ELM, that being its algorithm. Algorithms in social media help users see more of what a person likes based on the creator's a person watches, total watch time, and type of content a person views. With the use of the algorithm social media can promote items with ease. The algorithm takes a very central route approach as to how it creates what a viewer will find entertaining. The central route in the ELM is based on what people find to be the most entertaining, useful, or relevant information. The peripheral route is also used through social media in the form of unskippable ads and sometimes shop advertisements; different social media apps use both of these forms in different ways. There are many different ways these two routes can be used and interpreted depending on the social media app.

On Youtube

Youtube has been a dominant form of social media since its creation in the early 2000’s, especially in the video sharing field. Youtube had a monthly viewer base of 2 billion in the year 2020. With its constant popularity and dominance within the social media field there have been countless studies and research which aims to find why it is so popular. A study by Ana Munaro took a look at how the ELM contributes to the success of Youtube. Within her study, she aimed to find out what video features on drive popularity on Youtube. Ana sampled over 11,000 videos and 150 different creators ranging from various different categories. Youtube has a variety of elements that can be important to how someone feels about a certain video, creator, or topic. The study first researched language. Language is a vital part of Youtube and a consumer's processing ability. A study by Kujur and Singh saw in 2018 how emotional appeal yields better consumer engagement and interaction. A big part of the linguistic side of creators appeal to consumers through the ELM, had the usage of function vs content words. By researching the impact of function words when compared to content words, Ana saw videos with more function words had more positive results like more comment engagement, virality, and likes/dislikes. This attributed to the ELM’s dual processing model. Function words are easier to understand and generally more entertaining, so these are linked to the central route of the ELM. Function words are not explicit, they are more context dependant. Whereas content words are longer, possibly more confusing and these are linked to the peripheral route of the ELM. Objectivity and emotion is another area within Youtube videos that can be seen interpreted in either the central or peripheral route. This study showed if a video contained more objectivity or emotion it would be more popular, have more views, and more engagement. These findings play further into the ELM because a viewer is more likely to pay attention and be interested in a more animated and seemingly engaging work. Moving away from the linguistic side of the study, further research consisted of posting time throughout the day and its impact. For example, weekend posts and after non-business hour posts were the best times to have positive engagement in the previously mentioned categories. Overall the study showed the many different implications of how the ELM deeply affects how a person reacts with videos across Youtube.

In Health Care
A 2023 study conducted by researchers of Australia’s University of Wollongong and University of New South Wales used the ELM to study the interpretation of nutritional messages to those living with multiple sclerosis (MS), based on systematic reviews examining the relationship between MS and nutrition. Studies have shown programs regarding diet and nutrition for people living with multiple sclerosis have had a positive impact, as they assist with acceptance and allow people to feel they are in control. Studies in the United States have also shown that up to 70% of people living with MS will try diet as a form of therapy for MS. The ELM was used to sort findings into targeted messages based on three categories with the strongest evidence: Vitamin D, fatty acids, and dietary diversity, which were used to create persuasive messages using practical examples and motivators. These messages used the Australian National Dietary Guidelines, which specify what types of foods to eat, not what nutrients to eat, as it was determined people associate eating with foods and not with nutrients. Positive and negative reactions to the messages led to both the acceptance and dismissal of the information, respectively. Participants who were more recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis tended to be more open-minded to new nutritional information yet skeptical towards “extremist” diets. On the other hand, participants who had been living with MS for a longer period were more likely to participate in extremist diets but were less open-minded in accepting new nutrition information. This directly relates to the peripheral route of the ELM, as someone living with MS could have preconceived perceptions preventing them from obtaining new, even credible, information.

In Leadership Styles
At the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) in January of 2024, researchers Minsek Ko of Iowa State University, with Sumin Kim and Chinju Paul of Mississippi State University presented a study which used the ELM to bridge fear appeal literature with leadership literature. This study specifically was targeted toward Information Security researchers, to allow them to better create messages to make people comply with security measures, especially those that use fear as a tactic. It shows the style of messages which change the perceptions of those who view the messages. This study aimed to interpret how the rhetoric of a message affects fear appeal. Using the ELM, combined fear-based messaging research with leadership styles. Similar studies have also used fear appeal cues in communication to motivate security protection behaviors. Transactional leaders focus on surface-level details in security messages, while transformational leaders consider them more deeply. Fear-based messages work better for transactional leaders when appealing to emotions and credibility, while logical reasoning is more effective for transformational leaders. Other studies have shown similar results regarding leadership styles, stating peripheral cues to include positive mood have a positive effect on the target audience.