Peripheral and Central Routes to Persuasion

Last semester, I took a communications class (comm 118) and it was eye opening and tons of fun. I highly suggest taking it for all these reasons and also because Mary Beth Oliver is one of the funniest professors I've ever had (sorry, Ben). Okay, that aside, let me illustrate the most fascinating cognitive explanation for how we interpret ad that I learned in this class.

So what do we know about this ad? "Uh, Beyonce? Oh yeah it's LOREAL too." The appeal to logos is almost non-existant...literally! The text only text that reasons with us is in white small text and only faintly readable if you squint really hard. This ad is a perfect example of something we would use peripheral route to evaluate this ad. We use very little effort to interpret this ad because we aren't evaluating any messages claims. LOREAL is hardly making a claim at all except to maybe infer that Beyonce's skin is flawless. We aren't making a decision about how great this product is, or if we are going to buy it. We are only mildly amused by the refreshing face of Beyonce. Ads utilizing a peripheral route of processing depend on classical conditioning to pair your amused reaction to the ad to your reaction to LOREAL when you see it in the store. This route is far less effective at selling something than the alternative route, the Central route.

The central route is essentially a high-involvement evaluation of messages or claims on an ad. Because it is high involvement, we are very sensitive to what is a good argument and a bad argument. So either ads using a load of logos are either extremely effective, or maybe they should've just stuck to the peripheral route. Here's an example:

All that text! All those messages! While this appeals to different time in history and doesn't really hit home with what we consider to be important (I didn't know that being married had any influence on whether you wear stockings or not, but hey), it still uses a strong logos appeal. By evaluating each of these messages, something much more time consuming than the slight smile at Beyonce's pretty face, we get a good idea if we want to buy this product. Using a central processing system will protect us most from deception and dissatisfaction.

But imagine if all we did was central processing. With spotting every single message, ad or claim we would be actively thinking about the effects it might have on us if we were to be susceptible to this message, ad or claim. It takes time to evaluate and it would probably cloud our brains with unimportant thoughts and feelings. This is why, despite the "cop out" processing system it may seem to be, peripheral processing is very important. It's our brain taking shortcuts so we can focus on the most important things in life.

And really, most peripheral persuasion ads are for things twenty dollars and under. No one is going to try and sell you a 20,000 car without using some kind of logos. So, why fight it? Why tear apart a peripheral persuasion ad? Save yourself the effort and prepare to be fascinated with your brain the next time you evaluate an ad.