Persuasion refers to the process of influencing others to change their beliefs, behaviors, or thoughts. The central route of persuasion uses facts and information to sway people to make a change.

The art and science behind persuasion trace their origins back to ancient Greece and early forms of democracy. Persuasion involves using different tactics to change a person’s perceptions and, ultimately, behaviors.

Persuasion is often used in advertising and marketing. It can also be used in media sources, such as essays and articles. Persuasion also occurs on a personal level, such as when a friend tries to convince you to join them at a bar or party.

Persuasion can take many forms and include reason, facts, language, or images meant to provoke an emotional response. The central route of persuasion uses facts and logic to convince people to change their thinking, feelings, or behavior.

The central route of persuasion uses facts and logic to influence a person’s thinking and beliefs. It relies on the person’s willingness to listen and their ability to comprehend information presented to them to cause a change in thinking or behavior.

In order for this type of persuasion to work, four features need to be present. They include:

  • Strong, convincing message: A strong, convincing message forms the foundation of the central route of persuasion. This can involve sharing data, highlighting statistics, and sharing facts.
  • Persuasive communication: This type of persuasion uses a clear, one-sided argument to convey the message that intends to change a person’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
  • An attentive audience: The people listening to the arguments need to be attentive and willing to engage with the speaker or the entity delivering the message. It helps if the person or people personally relate to the information in the intended message.
  • Ability to process: The audience needs to be actively listening. Distractions or loss of focus can make the message less poignant and more likely to fail.

A 2022 study also suggested that in order for central route persuasion to work well, supplying more information may help influence the audience. However, adding more information only helps if the presenter organizes and presents it in a logical, coherent structure.

Central route of persuasion has a stronger likelihood to produce long lasting changes in belief that are harder to dissuade. It strongly assumes that the intended audience is both willing to hear and capable of mentally processing the information presented in order to make desired changes.

In other words, the central route of persuasion can be powerful and long lasting. But it requires a willingness in the intended audience to both listen and engage as well as think about the information presented.

You may find several examples of the central route of persuasion in different areas, including:

  • A commercial describing the benefits, features, and uses of a product to highlight why it’s important or useful.
  • A politician using an opponent’s voting record on bills or laws to highlight why their choices may be bad for your and other constituents’ needs or goals.
  • A friend explaining all the perks of attending a social event, highlighting how it can positively impact your life.
  • A health teacher presenting facts and figures surrounding STIs and unwanted pregnancies to influence students to use condoms and safe sex practices.
  • A sales person offering information on safety features, added features, and other benefits of a particular make and model of car.
  • A commercial on TV providing facts on the amount of plastic in the oceans to convince people to be more conscious of recycling, reusing, and responsible disposal.

Several different philosophies of persuasion exist. In 1986, researchers introduced a now popular model known as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM).

This explanation of persuasion involves two methods people, companies, and governments use to persuade others to change their thinking, beliefs, or behaviors. The two parts include:

  • The central route of persuasion: This type of persuasion relies on presenting facts and figures to convince an audience to change their behavior or thoughts. It also relies on an audience engaging in the presentation and applying thought to it.
  • The peripheral route of persuasion: This type of persuasion focuses more on emotions and positive feelings to influence behaviors and thoughts. It relies less on active engagement and thought and more on projecting a positive or negative feeling.

These two methods of persuasion rely on different tactics. Though they may both influence behavior, feelings, and thoughts, they differ in their approaches and long term effects.

The peripheral route of persuasion does not utilize facts and figures to influence thoughts and behaviors. Instead, it assumes a person or audience will not be able to or willing to devote higher levels of thinking to allow themselves to be persuaded.

Instead, the peripheral route relies on imparting a positive emotion on the audience to help casually influence behavior or choices.

For example, central route may use facts about a car’s safety and available features to convince a person to buy. But the peripheral route may use a model or celebrity to promote the car or pay for product placement in a movie or show.

The central route of persuasion is one of two parts of ELM, the other being the peripheral route of persuasion.

The central route of persuasion relies on an active audience willing to think about the topic in order to make a change in behavior, thoughts, or feelings. It uses facts and statistics to help persuade the audience.

This form of persuasion may produce longer lasting and harder to influence changes in thinking and behavior compared to the peripheral route of persuasion, which focuses on conveying and using feelings to influence changes.