Information-Processing Paradigm

This model is based on the Yale University framework for studying persuasion, which was developed during the 1940s and 1950s.

The approach suggests that the impact of a persuasive communication is mediated by three message processing phases: attention to the message, comprehension of it propositions, and acceptance of that content. Variations in communication sources, messages, channels, receivers, and target behaviours impact the persuasion process by affecting attention, comprehension, and/or message acceptance. Thus, if one wished to understand the effects of variables such as communicator trustworthiness, fear appeals, and receiver intelligence, one would need to explore how each of these variables affect, for better or worse, attention, comprehension, and message acceptance.

Social Psychologist William McGuire built on this idea in a series of essays. McGuire identified twelve steps in the processing of persuasive communications. A person must be exposed to a message, attend to it, take enough interest to process it further, comprehend the message (learning what), acquire taught skills (learning how), yield to the message (attitude change), store the message content and/or the new attitudinal position in memory, retrieve that information at later times, make decisions based on the retrieved information, behave in accordance with that decision, receive positive reinforcement for so behaving, and make the new position a part of self by integrating it into his or her congnitive structures and habit patterns. Reaching any of these twelve steps is contingent upon success at all prior steps.

The model suggests that a campaign will fail if it is unable to succeed with the audience at any one step. For instance, a spashy, extensive campaign that grabs the attention of everyone will fail if the message is incomprehensible. A campaign that gains attention and can be easily comprehended may still fail if the position advocated is too extreme to prompt yielding. In other words, a campaign is like a chain. It cannot be stronger than its weakest link.