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Attitudes and persuasion matter because understanding HOW an attitude is built explains HOW to change it, and different persuasion routes produce very different, more or less durable, results. An attitude is a relatively stable evaluation of a person, object, or idea, built from three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings), and behavioural (actions). For example, imagine a patient's attitude to medication: a belief it works (cognitive), a fear of side effects (affective), and a habit of skipping doses (behavioural). All three components feed into the one overall attitude toward taking the medication.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (a model of how persuasion happens) describes two distinct routes to attitude change. The central route relies on careful, effortful evaluation of the actual ARGUMENT's strength and evidence, and it produces attitude change that is more durable and resistant to counter-persuasion. The peripheral route relies on surface CUES instead, such as the speaker's attractiveness or confidence, rather than argument quality, and it produces attitude change that is weaker and easily reversed. For example, imagine a patient who changes their mind about starting an antidepressant after carefully weighing the actual evidence for benefit and risk, that is the central route, and the resulting attitude tends to persist. In practice, this means public health campaigns relying only on a likeable celebrity spokesperson (a peripheral cue) risk producing attitude change that fades quickly, compared with campaigns that also present clear, credible evidence.

• A model of persuasion proposes two distinct routes by which a message may change an opinion, depending on how much thought the listener gives it. What is this model called?
• A smoker who believes smoking is harmful continues to smoke, and reduces his discomfort by deciding the evidence is exaggerated. Which mechanism is he using?
• Public health messages that arouse extreme fear are often less effective than moderate ones. Which explanation for this finding is best supported?
• A campaigner first asks neighbours to display a small window sticker, then later finds they more readily agree to a large garden sign. Which persuasion technique is this?

• Central route, persuasion via careful evaluation of argument strength, unlike the peripheral route, which relies on surface cues such as attractiveness or confidence.
• Peripheral-route attitude change, weaker and easily reversed, whereas central-route change is more durable and resistant to counter-persuasion.
• Attitudes and persuasion, changing a belief in response to an external message, rather than cognitive dissonance, which is resolving discomfort from two conflicting beliefs already held.
• Cognitive component of attitude, beliefs about the object, unlike the affective component, which is the emotional feeling attached to it.

• That model describes attitude components rather than persuasion routes.
• He has continued the behaviour rather than altering it.
• That model concerns perceived threat and benefit in health choices.
• That model describes stages of readiness to change behaviour.
• That model predicts intention from attitude, norms and control.

• Name the learning, social or research principle being tested before reading the options.
• Identify the antecedent, behaviour, consequence or cognitive process in the vignette.
• Compare the direction of effect with the nearest competing principle.
• Apply the same rule to a new example to confirm that the answer transfers.