Persuasion by a single route: A view from the unimodel

Major current notions of persuasion depict it as attainable via 2 qualitati vely distinct routes: (a) a central ora systematic route in which opinions and attitudes are based on carefully processed arguments in the persuasive message and (b) a peripheral or heuristic route in which they are based on briefly considered heuristics or cues, exogenous to the message. This artic le offers a single-route reconceptualization that treats these dual routes to persuasion as involving functionally equivalent types of evidence from w hich persuasive conclusions may be drawn. Previous findings in the dual-pro cess literature are reconsidered in light of this "unimodel," and novel dat a are presented consistent with its assumptions. Beyond Its parsimony and i ntegrative potential, the unimodel offers conceptual, empirical, and practi cal advantages in the persuasion domain.