Dual-Processing Models

The term dual-processing model of persuasion refers to a theory or model that essentially identifies two basic routes to persuasion. The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion and the heuristic-systematic model of persuasion (HSM) are the two best-known and widely used dual-process theories of persuasion. The ELM was originally developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo and published in 1986; the HSM was developed by Shelly Chaiken and Alice Eagly, and its tenets were initially discussed in an article published in 1980 and later more formally outlined in 1987. Both theories bear a striking similarity but do differ in several important conceptual distinctions.