Low Involvement - Dual Processing Models - Elaboration Likelihood Model - Heuristic-Systematic Model - Symbolic Convergence Theory - Affect

There is currently no empirical evidence to equivocally determine the effectiveness of the United States Air Force “Cross into the Blue” televised recruitment advertisements. A significant amount of time and effort was exuded in the creation of the four commercials currently used by the Air Force in its recruiting campaign. It is significant to determine the effectiveness of their ads and whether they are successful in influencing young men and women to join the Air Force. In this paper, our research attempts to answer the following research question:

RQ: To what degree are the United States Air Force “Cross into the Blue” campaign ads effective?

This research argues that the receiver’s involvement in the processing of the recruitment advertisement messages is significant in determining how successful the advertisers are in influencing their intended audience. This position is based on theory and research conducted on the concepts of affect and the symbolic convergence, and how these concepts effect involvement, which determines which of the paths the messages will be processed through the dual-process models of persuasion. If the ad campaign is effective, we posit that affect and symbolic convergence guide the message recipient to process the intended message via low-involvement processes.

Low Involvement

The medium used to broadcast the recruitment advertisements, television, is itself a low-involvement vehicle. The vast majority of television commercials are inherently low involvement as well. Research indicates that low involvement has a powerful effect when properly used in television advertisements. This paper will also show how the uses of these two low-involvement mediums combine to create a powerful message to reach the intended recipient(s).

The concept of low involvement was first proposed by Krugman (1965) in an article on the effectiveness of television commercials (Heath, 2001). His sense of the relationship between advertising effectiveness and audience involvement was derived from studies by Ebbinghaus (1913) and Hovland (1949) on the persuasiveness of nonsensical and unimportant messages. Their finding’s each demonstrated that the learning of non-sense material, which closely resembles the learning of advertising messages, occurred on the basis of primacy and recency with a U-shaped curve mapping in the process. This process suggested that low-involvement learning altered behavior and cognition before attitude.

Furthermore, research indicates that processing through low involvement has proven to be an effective methodology in influencing or persuading intended recipients to perceive the intended message. Pfau and Parrott (1993) cited that most successful influence occurs in circumstances with low involvement when a person’s mind is virtually at rest. This is particularly true of most televised commercial advertisements which exert an impact on its viewers (Krugman, 1965). It does this through two distinct routes which are distinguished through either low or high personal involvement. One of these routes is visual and the other is audio. Television, by its very nature, has a higher ability to convey images rather than facts (Clark, 1988). Research reveals that the concept of low involvement is the most accurate description of contemporary television advertising. It is primarily through the passive route in which the television medium which carries its messages to receivers (Calder, 1979).

It is through the low-involvement process that learning is characterized by an unaware assimilation of knowledge (Krugman, 1984). In essence, when people are neither involved nor interested in a particular material, learning occurs in the primacy/recency basis. Through enough repetition, new material can be learned by a disengaged audience. However, this type of learning takes place below the level of consciousness. Krugman used the low involvement learning theory to explain how television advertising worked. On the one hand, it seemed that television commercials did little to change consumer attitudes toward products. On the other, commercials were apparently effective at generating sales. Krugman's low-involvement hypothesis explained this dilemma.

Another consideration is that contemporary television advertising messages, at an increasing rate, contain very little brand information. Instead, advertisements operate on the basis of passive or heuristic assumptions relative to receiver message processing (Pope, 1983). In fact, one study of television advertising commercials found that of 378 commercial messages, less than half contained any objective product information. Television, by its very nature, has a higher ability to convey images rather than facts (Clark, 1988). Research reveals that the concept of low involvement is the most accurate description of contemporary television advertising. Thus, in a majority of advertising situations, an ordered learning hierarchy does not occur.
Pfau and Parrott (1993) also state that affect is another key concept that is based on processing information through low elaboration message processing. For example, using the model of thought, political campaigners attempt to generate positive affect in its recipients, and this positive affect evokes action. It is affect that is the principle objective for campaigners. Processing messages through affect has the potential to contribute to attitude formation and eventually change, followed by action, or it may bypass attitude and result directly in action. It is this action which may affect the receiver’s attitude. Affect, aka emotion, may itself act independently of cognitive thought and can occur even without stimulus recognition (Moreland & Zajonc, 1977; Zajonc, 1980; Zajonc, & Markus, 1982).

Affect is a powerful appeal. Evidence suggests that affect precedes and may even dominate cognition (Edell & Burke, 1987; Holbrook & Batra, 1987; Ittelson, 1973).

Petty and Parrott (1993) add that there are two factors which work in tandem to elevate the role of source factors in influence. The first factor is that the processing model determines the relative weight of the content versus source factors. The presence of high-involving, active processing can elevate content factors versus low-involving, passive processing which enhances source factors. The second factor that contributes to the primacy of source factors in influence is the communication modality. There are two ways in which television contributes. The first is that people consume television more passively than the other media while often simultaneously involved in other endeavors or actions. Television itself facilitates low-elaborative message processing. Communication modalities, such as print, require active receiver processing, while others like television do not (Krugman, 1965; Salomon, 1981; Wright, 1974). Television thus contributes to low-elaborative processing and to the importance of source factors such as influence. Chaiken’s (1987) research indicates, “The peripheral cue was used more with video … In these cases, attention would be drawn to communicator likeability cues because of their salience and vividness.”

Aside from the low involvement processes, we must examine how receivers perceive the televised recruitment advertisements on a cognitive basis in addition to the role of how involvement influences their processing of the messages through either of the dual-processing models of persuasion.

Dual Processing Models

The dual process models of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Heuristic-Systematic Model are to a great extent based on how the concept of persuasion plays an integral part in determining an individual’s attitudes or feelings on specific matters or issues presented to them. This research will look at the theories of the ELM and the HSM and the roles they take in evaluating the effectiveness of televised Air Force recruitment ads.

Elaboration Likelihood Model. In the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, a principal facet in preparing a message that is designed to persuade an audience to develop an attitude favorable with the proposed message is understanding how different people are persuaded by different messages. Petty and Cacioppo (1979) explained how involvement affected influence and whether it could increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses. They stated there were two different types of involvement, either of which could affect susceptibility to influence. The ELM proposed that people are neither universally thoughtful nor universally mindless in evaluating persuasive messages (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984). The authors posited that a variety of individual and situational factors are used to determine how much cognitive effort a person would commit to processing a message. Petty and Cacioppo (1986) proposed the ELM looks for low and high elaboration likelihood factors and how they would affect persuasive influence through one of two processes: the central or peripheral routes of persuasion. In defining the model, they said involvement determines which route of persuasion will affect behavior. The levels of involvement are determined on the individual’s willingness to “think” about a position or subject.
In our research into the effectiveness of the Air Force televised recruiting ads, the ELM provides a venue through which the Air Force and the producers of the ads develop messages targeted toward a specific audience. An assumption is that most of the targeted audience will have a low involvement with the recruitment-related messages. Therefore, they will be less likely to elaborate on the ads and are more apt to be influenced by the ads through the peripheral route of processing versus the central route. Those who have a family member in the armed forces or who have actively considered joining the Air Force are assumed to have a high-level of involvement and will be persuaded more through the central route of persuasion.
In the central route of persuasion, attitude changes result when a person carefully attempts to evaluate the merits of a position. The person becomes actively engaged and carefully scrutinizes the content of the message to form an attitude. The attitude developed in this form of persuasion is said to be more persistent and resilient to change due to how the attitude was formed (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981). Hamilton, Hunter, and Boster (1993) state that receivers are motivated through the central route and thus are able to think about the specific issues raised in a persuasive message. As a result, their thoughts on the issue or argument directly lead to their attitudes on the subject. If the persuasive message is a strong one, then the recipient’s attitude will be influenced in accordance with the message.

Petty and Cacioppo (1986) explained that those with a low involvement are those less willing to think about the subject and are influenced by other variables. Larsen and Phillips (2002) added that the elaboration level is considered low when individuals process the message through peripheral processing. In this processing route, attitudes are not formed as a result of the message’s contents but rather through simpler cues, such as the characteristics of the information source or the message. The subject then makes a simple inference as to the merits of the position advocated based on simple cues used in the persuasion context (Petty and Cacioppo, 1984). The individual could either lack a desire to analyze the message, or perhaps is unable to analyze the message content, so the subject relies on peripheral cues to shape his attitude. These cues could include characteristics such as the attractiveness of the message provider, the type of music playing in the background, or perhaps even the setting they were in.

Both of these routes look at the effect persuasion plays in changing an individual’s attitude. The model indicates that an attitude that results from the central route of processing has a high likelihood of being enduring. Conversely, an attitude change achieved through the peripheral route of the persuasion for attitude change is likely to be relatively shallow and will create an attitude change of relatively short endurance. Petty and Cacioppo (1986) also noted that what begins as a temporary attitude change in the peripheral route could possibly become a permanent change through central route processing. This could happen if an individual, as result of the peripheral route of persuasion, became actively interested in the argument itself and thus used the central route of persuasion actively to consider the argument.

The ELM has the capacity to theoretically predict how, and under what circumstances, the message, receiver, and context affect the impact of a persuasive message (Booth-Butterfield & Welbourne, 2002). Another key element of the ELM is it proposes that the central route of persuasion will help build attitudes that are resistant to counter-messages or counter-persuasion.

Petty, Kasmer, Haugteldt, and Cacioppo (1987) explained that the ELM is based on the belief that people desire to form “correct attitudes” once they are exposed to persuasive communication. They further explained that variables could serve as persuasive arguments and thus provide information to the central merits of an issue.

In addition to this, Larsen and Phillips (2002) proposed that the ELM may prove to be a valuable tool by examining the implications on how a recruiter may effect attraction to a firm during the recruitment process. Although most scholars agree that job and organizational characteristics are important in attracting job candidates, there is considerable debate as to the importance of recruiter efforts and what effect they have in attracting candidates to a firm.

The role of the recruiter can act as a significant peripheral cue. For an example, Turban and Dougherty (1992) indicated that male job applicants tended to have a higher attraction to a perspective firm when they were interviewed by male recruiters. Conversely, their attraction to the firm was lower when interviewed by female recruiters. The ability to use the ELM to explain how the recruiter’s behaviors and characteristics affect the job-choice process could prove to be a valuable tool in determining how it will affect the job applicant’s attraction to an organization. Larsen and Phillips (2002) stated they felt these effects warranted further research.

Based on this research, a logical assumption could be made that potential recruits will process the televised Air Force recruitment ads through the peripheral route of processing unless they have a high-level of interest due to personal association or previous-laden interests.

Heuristic-Systematic Model. The Heuristic-Systematic Model of persuasion is similar to the ELM in that both models indicate persuasion may take one of two very distinct paths depending on how much an individual is willing to think about a message (Booth-Butterfield & Gutowski, 1994). This can be further defined as the systematic processing route in the HSM or central route in the ELM, where the subject actively thinks about the message, versus the heuristic processing route in the HSM and the peripheral route in the ELM, where the subject does not focus on the message. The first path in both models develops when a receiver carefully evaluates the importance of a factor in the persuasive situation. Additionally, the models are both similar in that both of their secondary paths, the “peripheral route” in ELM and “heuristic processing” in HSM, require little attention or effort on the behalf of the receiver since they are not actively attentive to the persuasion.

Recognizing the need for a less contextual analysis of attitude change, Chaiken used the HSM to determine alternate variables that influence attitude change in social information processing (Chaiken, 1980, 1987). Chaiken’s study of the HSM of social information processing has evolved from its two-mode rudiment to a number of tertiary studies involving the cues and motivations for information process.

Beginning in 1980, the HSM was used to examine two modes of heuristic and systematic process (Chaiken, 1980, 1987). This initial model examined heuristic processing as a set of simple preexisting decision rules that a person follows when processing information (Chaiken, Giner-Sorolla, & Chen, 1996). Consequently, systematic processing involved a thorough content analysis of information (Chaiken, Wood, & Eagly, 1996). Simply stated, individuals use heuristics most often, as they are uninterested in putting forth the effort required in cognitive process and analysis of context (Miller, 2002).

As study in the examination of attitudes increased, Chaiken used the dual-process model to examine not only mode of processing information, he also postulated that both modes could work concurrently in information process. (Chaiken, et al., 1996). This concurrent information process resulted in the hypothesis that heuristic processing develops a bias that can affect systematic processing in the future (Chaiken & Maheswaran, 1994). Furthermore, it was hypothesized that when concurrent information process (heuristic and systematic) occurred, the information process is reinforced as the individual has both increased confidence through preexisting bias and through the analysis of message content (Chaiken & Maheswaran, 1994). The final proposed hypothetical change to the HSM was that systematic processing will overwhelm heuristics processing when a high quantity of content is analyzed.

Following this basic framework, the HSM continues to develop additional factors in information process on both a heuristic and systematic level. A defense motivation refers to one’s tendency to develop bias based on personal beliefs as well as additional heuristic motivators (Chaiken, et al., 1996). Additionally, impression motivation refers to interpersonal goals that determine bias within a culture. In understanding the HSM, we must examine the specific elements of the model which have influenced the development of additional research into the various modes and influences on information process. As stated earlier, heuristics are personal, simple decision rules. These rules determine the level of cognition that an individual assumes regarding a particular type of information. A key element of this is the peripheral, an external influence or the content that an individual processes.

Heuristic-systematic social information process assumes that an individual can interpret a message directly from the context or they will process it based on an informational cue (Todorov, Chaiken, & Henderson, 2002). It assumes that individuals will only process information systematically when motivated to do so, thus when not motivated, they will follow a heuristic approach. When individuals participate in the processing, they follow only a few (normally one) cues that drive the heuristic process.

Accuracy motivation is a logical approach to information process. Those who are motivated by accuracy are likely to make objective decisions. These people are more likely to participate in systematic information process. However, as heuristic process is based upon experience, it can be realized when looking at accuracy motivation, as this may serve as a pattern to an individual’s preexisting information process. Defense motivation relies on the confidence of an individual in their information process. Therefore, heuristic processing prevails. Impression motivation, sometimes referred to as cultural information rests solely on the desire to maintain socially acceptable beliefs. These beliefs form information process based upon interpersonal relations within a group. Therefore, the group selectively uses heuristic information.
Systematic information process allows individuals to scrutinize a message objectively. They look at the content and information presented and discounted any irrelevant variables that exist within a message. During this scrutiny, the individual looks at the relevance of information to a particular task, the validity of the position (based on previous knowledge), the cognition of the message itself, the motivation of the individual and ultimately their personal awareness of the information presented (Todorov, et al., 2002).

Heuristic process is a non-analytical approach. An individual’s basic rule to interpreting information keeps them focused on a cue in the information source. This cue develops their judgment on an issue, with minimal cognitive effort. Experience and empirical validity develop the decision rules in an individual. As heuristic process is based upon preexisting rules, an individual’s memory, comprehension and application determine their knowledge activation. (Todorov, et al., 2002). Heuristics are stored within an individual’s memory and are subconsciously called upon when processing information. When heuristics are applied, it is critical that they are applied to the appropriate issue.

As HSM theory has developed, the interaction of heuristic and systematic processing (Gilbert, 1999) has resulted in the development of additional HSM theory. Three hypotheses that have evolved from this relationship include the additivity hypothesis, the attenuation hypothesis and the bias hypothesis.
The additivity hypothesis states when the judgmental implications of heuristic cues and arguments are consistent, heuristic and systematic processing can have independent and additive effects on persuasion (Todorov, et al., 2002). The attenuation hypothesis involves a situation where heuristic and systematic process does not agree. It states that if an individual is engaged in a systematic process, it will most likely override any heuristic process, as the individual is motivated to conduct contextual review (Todorov, et al., 2002). Lastly, the bias hypothesis examines the flipside. It argues that a preexisting cue (heuristic) will outweigh a systematic process of information (Todorov, et al., 2002).

Based on this research, as with the ELM, a logical assumption could be made that potential recruits will process the televised Air Force recruitment ads through the heuristic approach or the peripheral processing since they are the routes most often used when processing persuasive messages, unless the subjects have a high level of interest due to personal association or previous-laden interests.

Another key component to low-level involvement in the information processing of the television recruitment advertisements is symbolic convergence. As the potential recruits process the ads through either the ELM or HSM high- or low-level involvement processes, a reasonable assumption is that the Symbolic Convergence Theory, which suggests that groups share messages to gain acceptance and to recruit new members, will play a large factor in their developing a greater identification with the Air Force.

Symbolic Convergence Theory. The shared symbolic reality is like an action plan members follow in their everyday activities. The theory began by explaining the sharing of fantasy themes in the communication of members of small work groups (Cragan & Shields, 1998). Bormann described fantasy themes as a story that accounts for the group’s experience and that is the reality of the participants (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1997). Fantasy themes helps uncover the force of stories and dramatic elements which operate like stories and ultimately determine how these influence you. The method presumes that inherent in every drama are values and that through the stories people tell, we get a glimpse of their values (Griffin, 1997).

This theory can prove significant in the process of developing emotional ties or greater identification with the Air Force due to its perceived ability to foster a sense of unity. According to Griffin (1997), individuals build a sense of community or a group consciousness through symbolic convergence. As symbolic convergence ties a group together with cohesive bonds, a sense of togetherness is formed. Individual members begin using the words "we" instead of "I," and "us" instead of "me."

The root notion of the theory is the force of fantasy theme analysis (Bormann, 1972). Fantasy theme analysis uses setting, action, saga, and rhetorical community as criteria. Our response to the groups’ stories can be a key to our beliefs; for example, if we cheer a hero's action, we support that action; if we laugh at a character's clowning around, we define his behaviors as deserving laughter (Littlejohn, 1996). Typically we do this without giving it much thought; analysis involves bringing the process into conscious awareness (Doyle, 1985).

Bormann (1972) noted Bales’ work implied “the dynamic process of group fantasizing” and that group fantasizing was an extension of individual fantasizing. Bormann (1972) labeled this "symbolic convergence.” The word “symbolic” was chosen because the theory dealt with language, fantasy, and a number of symbolic facts. The term “convergence” was chosen because the theory described sharing group fantasies as the cause of the union of the participant’s symbolic world (Bormann et al., 2000). In small groups, members develop private code words and signals, which only those inside the group understand. When groups achieve symbolic convergence, they have a sense of community based on common experiences and understandings (Bormann, 1972).

This leads to the possibility that the message recipients could develop an association with symbolic convergence in processing the message of the ads through either of the two very distinct paths of processing in the ELM or HSM. This would be based on to what extent the recipients were willing to think about the message due to their influence through symbolic convergence, and ultimately how much effort they would render in scrutinizing the messages and evaluating the arguments presented.

Bormann identified four fundamental concepts of symbolic convergence theory: fantasy theme, symbolic cue, fantasy type, and saga (Cragan & Shields, 1998). How other group members respond to the dramatic statement determines whether or not it becomes a fantasy theme within the group. A fantasy theme is "the means through which the interpretation is accomplished in communication. Fantasy themes tell a story that accounts for the group's experience and that is the reality of the participants" (Foss, 1996). When a fantasy theme becomes widely accepted and is used to explain related experiences which occur under very different circumstances, it becomes a shared fantasy theme (Bormann, 1982). Shared fantasy theme leads to a symbolic cue (Bormann et al., 2000). A fantasy type is a stock scenario used to explain new events in a well-known dramatic form (Bormann, 1977). Fantasy type is thought of as the workhorse of emerging rhetorical visions because it conveys meaning, emotion, and motive for group members (Cragan & Shields, 1998).
A saga is a detailed account of the achievements in the life of a person, group, community, organization, or nation (Bormann et al., 2000). Within a saga are the meaning, emotion, and motive for existing (Cragan & Shields, 1998). The insurance giant State Farm cues off its motto of “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” (Cragan & Shields, 1998). This saga centers on the insurance agent who could be your neighbor, living and working in the policyholder’s neighborhood. The Air Force cues off its slogan “Cross into the Blue.” The idea that the Air Force is waiting in the recruiting saga resonates with potential recruits. It gives them a vision of themselves in various jobs in the Air Force.

This rhetorical vision is a putting-together of the various scripts that gives the participants a broader view of things (Bormann, 1985). As group members share a number of fantasies, and thereby acquire similar understandings of their experiences, participants begin to develop a rhetorical vision of themselves and the group (Cragan & Shields, 1998). The rhetorical vision is often symbolized by an image or slogan, as with the Air Force’s "We’re waiting for you" and Coca Cola’s "It’s the real thing." The image or slogan calls up a whole host of associations and shared narratives for group members (Cragan & Shields, 1998). The rhetorical vision summoned by the slogan frames the way the group members interpret their actions and imagine their future.

Bormann (1985) stresses the idea that an individual may participate in any number of rhetorical visions. Any individual may share several rhetorical visions providing social realities for such things as hobbies, politics, intimate relationships, and religion. The visions may last only for short periods of time and may be shared by only a few people.

Since its beginnings more than 30 years ago, the symbolic convergence theory has helped to explain aspects of interpersonal, small group, organizational, and public communication. In the organizational communication context, Cragan and Shields (1992) conducted a symbolic convergence theory-based study of a Fortune 500 organization that had experienced a corporate buyout and downsizing (p. 199). Working with an advertising agency, their task was to invent a new corporate name and identity, develop new markets for products, and develop new advertising themes (Cragan & Shields, 1992). They segmented its marketplace into five separate buying types and developed fantasy themes keyed to each segment for national advertising (Cragan & Shields, 1992). Their study demonstrated the use of the symbolic convergence theory to create new company symbols, and demonstrated the real-world benefits of segmenting markets to target sales campaigns (Bormann et al., 2000).

Perhaps equally as important as symbolic convergence is the concept of affect and the role it plays as another key component to low-level involvement in the information processing of the television recruitment. A safe assumption is that one of the goals of the Air Force recruitment ads is to elicit a modicum of positive emotion to provide a persuasive motivation intended to positively affect the attitudes of potential recruits to entice them to become a member of the Air Force team. As with the Symbolic Convergence Theory, these messages can be processed through using either the ELM or HSM theories.

Affect. Affect is a term used interchangeably with the word emotion, and studies of this phenomenon date back to when classic philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Kant and others devoted significant time to examining the role of emotion in human affairs (Forgas, 2001).

Since the beginning of human civilization, artists, writers, philosophers and other scholars have been fascinated by the relationships between feeling and thinking and affect and cognition (Forgas, 2001). This phenomenon colors virtually all aspects of our lives. What we pay attention to, what we decide to do, what we remember, and how we interact with people, things and events all involve an emotional state. Thoughts, judgments, memories, decisions all are profoundly influenced by how we happen to feel at the time. The term affect is used interchangeably by some social science researchers to mean emotion. The ambiguity of the word in its relation to emotion persists today after more than two decades of research. However, there is a growing consensus among professionals that affect commonly refers to the general valence (positive or negative) and intensity (how strong the affect is) of an emotional state, while emotion refers to the specific types of feelings in response to certain events (Guerrero, Andersen, & Trost, 1998; Petty, Gleicher, & Baker, 1991).

There are three main approaches to classifying different emotions: the discrete approach, the dimensional approach, and the prototype approach. According to the discrete emotions approach, individuals experience basic emotions distinct from one another (Guerrero et. al, 1998). It focuses on the characteristics that distinguish emotions from one another. In contrast to the discrete emotions approach, the dimensional emotions approach focuses on identifying emotions based on their placement on dimensions. This approach includes “a valence (positive or negative), an activity dimension (i.e. aroused-relaxed) and intensity dimension (i.e. strong-weak)” (Guerrero et al., 1998, p. 12). Finally, the prototype approach is a middle-of-the-road approach that rests on the idea that language, and knowledge structures related to language, impact how people conceptualize and categorize information. According to this perspective, people use information from their experiences to build a knowledge structure.

Zajonc (1980) sparked a widely published debate on whether emotion was a pre-cognitive or post-cognitive event. He claimed that emotion could occur without cognition. “It is possible that we can like something or be afraid of it before we know precisely what it is and perhaps even without knowing what it is” (Zajonc, 1980, p. 5). He provided powerful evidence on claims made by a psychologist W. Wundt (1907) decades ago:
“When any physical process rises above the threshold of consciousness, it is the affective elements which as soon as they are strong enough, first become noticeable. They begin to force themselves energetically into the fixation point of consciousness before anything is perceived of the ideational elements … They are sometimes pleasurable or unpleasurable character, sometimes they are predominantly states of strained expectation … Often there is vividly present … the special affective tone of the forgotten idea, although the idea itself still remains in the background of consciousness … In a similar manner … the clear apperception of ideas in acts of cognition and recognition is always preceded by feelings (pp. 243-244).”

In his paper, Zajonc (1980) uses the act of decision-making as an example in which thought and affect are independent. He argues that people’s exploration of alternatives to make a decision involves a deductive cognitive effort, but in reality, this is rarely the case.

“It is generally believed that all decisions require some conscious or unconscious processing of pros and cons. Somehow we have come to believe, tautologically, to be sure, that if a decision has been made, then a cognitive process must have preceded it. Yet there is no evidence that this is indeed so. In fact, for most decisions, it is extremely difficult to demonstrate that there has actually been any prior cognitive process whatsoever.” (p.6)

If cognition is viewed as part of an emotional experience, then it becomes more difficult to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between the two processes (Izard, 1993).

Evidence in the past decade have concluded that affective states influence people’s: “(1) recall, (2) evaluative judgments, (3) free associations, (4) categorizations of novel and familiar stimuli, (5) decision rules in choice tasks, and (6) negotiation strategies in bargaining tasks” (Cohen & Areni, 1992, p. 189). The accumulated research of affect and persuasion clearly show that individuals’ evaluations of people, objects and issues can be influenced by their feelings, moods, and emotions -- whether or not the affect is actually relevant to the attitude object under consideration (Petty, Gleicher, & Baker, 1991). Early empirical evidence revealed that evaluations of words, people, political slogans, and persuasive communications could be altered by application of a variety of affect-producing stimuli.

For example, the field of advertising’s view of the consumer go as far back as the 1930s (based largely on the psychoanalytic theories) when emotional appeals became, “the order of the day, reflecting a new view of consumers as emotional beings” (Cohen, 1990). Affective advertisements can make an individual feel happy, angry, sad, fearful, etc. An average television commercial might use attractive women, smiling babies, beautiful scenery, or other “peripheral” components to create a positive affective state, often without the degree of attention likely to cause more active processing of such information (Cohen & Areni, 1992). A consumer may dislike an ad because it makes them feel subjective feelings they have accumulated over time (Batra & Ray, 2001). Due to replicated evidence that states affect plays an important role in how people respond to messages (Dillard & Peck, 2000), cognition-centered models of persuasion, which were popular for many years, have now been modified to essentially incorporate the role of affective processes.

When analyzing emotional appeals, there are two perspectives identified by researchers to explain how affect-producing stimuli work. Message-induced affect is an emotional state that occurs in direct response to a message (Jorgensen, 1998). In this strategy, an emotional appeal is intentionally included in the persuasive message to change or reinforce the attitudes of the receiver. In contrast, message-irrelevant affect is an emotional state that exists prior to the reception of a specific persuasive message (Jorgensen, 1998). The affective state is not irrelevant itself, but holds important consequences for message processing. The concept of moods is inherently tied into the emotional process. Moods, in contrast from affect in that they are more global and enduring feeling states (Petty, DeSteno, & Rucker, 2001) in an emotional state; whereas affect refers to the general valence (positive or negative) and intensity (how strong the affect is) of an emotional state. Positive affect may promote top-down, theory-based processing in which and individual relies on cognitively accessible information (i.e. knowledge, beliefs, stereotypes, expectations, primed thoughts), and negative affect may promote bottom-up, data-based processing, in which an individual relies on data from the external environment rather than on internal cognitive constructions (Clore, Gasper, & Garvin, p. 140).
The concept of involvement is an important moderator of the amount and type of information processing elicited by persuasive communication in ELM. Most research validates the theory that under “high involvement attitudes in response to advertisements would be affected via the central route, but under “low involvement” attitudes would be affected via the peripheral route (Petty et al., 1983). The model predicts that “as argument scrutiny and motivation to process information goes down, peripheral cues (such as emotion and emotional appeals) become more important determinants of persuasion” (Jorgensen, 1998, pg. 409).
Similar to the concepts of the HSM is the Affect Infusion Model. It is a multi-process framework designed to explain the different ways in which affect can have an impact on social cognition, judgments, and reasoning (Forgas, 2000). The basic assumption behind AIM is that affect can have both informational and processing effects on cognition. “Information effects occur because affect influences the content of cognition (what people think). Processing effects occur because affect influences the process of cognition (how people think)” (Forgas, 2000, p. 254). Affect infusion is the process where affectively loaded information influences and becomes incorporated into cognitive and judgmental processes (Forgas, 2000). The heuristic and substantive processing strategies require more constructive and open-ended thinking, which allows multiple avenues and opportunities for affect infusion (high infusion strategies).

The Symbolic Convergence Theory and the concept of affect both play significant roles in determining how perspective recruits will use the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Heuristic Systematic Model to process the persuasive messages exuded from the Air Force televised recruitment advertisements.
This study posits one macro hypothesis: Assuming the recipients will have low involvement, the following elicited outcomes should enhance ad effectiveness, manifested in terms of (a) positive attitude toward the Air Force, and (b) greater likelihood of joining the Air Force:
(a) Greater positive emotional response;
(b) More diverse perception of the image of the Air Force;
(c) Greater identification with the Air Force,

These elicited hypotheses are targeted specifically at how the role of Symbolic Convergence Theory and affect play in determining the involvement level of the participants and how the messages will be process through the ELM or the HSM. Covariants of interest in this study are the roles the elements of gender, school grade, age, and pervious military associations may play as they relate to message perception and its persuasiveness to affect attitude change. The results of this study will attempt to answer the research question.

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