“Every interaction, every conversation, every exchange of ideas has an effect on others and presents for us an influencing opportunity” (Mackin, 2006). Using persuasive communication theories such as the Cognitive Dissonance theory (Fistinger, 1957) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) I’ll show you how you can make your website a whole lot more influential.

Recently, as you know, the iPad was officially announced and is probably going to be bought by every Apple fanatic from here to the remote forests of the Amazon. Obviously, as I’m apart of the elite Apple family (, I have a Macbook pro – Lexi,) I am also one of those fanatics. However, sadly, I’ve yet to own an iPhone (for a number of unfortunate reasons) and I HAVE to get one. Therefore, it’s between the iPhone and the iPad. As much as I would sell the clothes off my back for both, I’ve yet to find a credible reason to buy the iPad now considering my everyday tasks and current financial situation. To make a long story short, as I’m an extremely practical person, I eventually realised that getting the iPhone is a smarter choice as it’s more suitable for me, blah blah blah. I’ll get the iPad for Christmas when my bank account recovers :)

The discomfort I felt when trying to make the decision between the iPhone (being practical) and iPad (satisfying an irrational desire), social psychologists term this reaction cognitive dissonance. It is described as a feeling of discomfort that happens when we realise there is inconsistency among our attitudes or our attitudes and behaviour. In effort to help you use your website to change visitor attitudes and or behaviour, I’ll use cognitive dissonance theory to show you how websites can leverage the cognitive dissonance experienced by visitors.

• This theory suggests persuasion is a post-reactive response to discrepancies in beliefs or beliefs and behaviour where users rather maintain consistency between these (Dainton & Zelley, 2004). Take for instance, dating sites. They are usually faced with stigma and sometimes are not considered as being worth the money. This theory recommends that website content (, the persuasive message,) can take advantage of the visitors dissonance (thinking online dating is risky, taboo, not worth the money versus wanting to conveniently find love online) by offering advice that attempts to close the disparity between their incongruent beliefs and actions. Similar to Apple prominently stating on their website that the iPad is only $499 (affordable) as opposed to the $999 (expensive) false price tag floating around prior to the announcement. They reduced the dissonance experienced by those persons like me who were saying, “I want it but it’s going to be too expensive”.
• Alternatively, using your website, you can try to trivialise the contrasting attitudes and behaviours where as a result the degree of cognitive dissonance experienced will be reduced (Simon, Greenberg, & Brehn, 1995). “So what?!!! The iPad is worth it, cost is not a factor”.
• Another way cognitive dissonance can be leveraged is through what is called dissonance-induced behaviour change. Researchers (Stone, Wiegand, Cooper & Aronson, 1997) found that most individuals when confronted with their own hypocrisy attempt to reduce their dissonance by changing their behaviour providing the opportunity to do so is available. Take for example a charity’s website requesting donations for those living in poverty. Perhaps the site accompanied by a donate button can mention that Caribbean people (like you) are known for their charity, however, that a percentage of us don’t often support charitable causes. According to this theory, this appeal should induce cognitive dissonance within Caribbean visitors who see themselves as being generous givers and also who advocate for the eradication of poverty but didn’t donate as yet, and it urges them to do so now via the donate button.

The ELM stresses the importance of knowing your online target audience and the cognitive routes they take when processing your ‘persuasive message’. It assumes that there are two ways or routes (central and peripheral) to make decisions and consequently get persuaded. Individuals taking the central route scrutinize, ‘think through’ and elaborate on the logic of the message. Whereas those taking the peripheral route utilize several different cues (e.g., comparison, likeability, authority, commitment and consistency, and scarcity) to make quick decisions. Those taking this route hardly ever care about how strong and solid your argument is, they are more receptive when your conclusions matches their preconceived ideas.

• Either technique is used depending on the type of the situation and the nature of the presented argument (Baron and Byrne, 2004). With systematic thinkers the central route will be taken if circumstances allow for deliberation over the message or if the audience is well informed about the topic. However, if visitors are required to make a speedy decision or they are uninformed about the message, the peripheral route should be taken.
• The model suggests that when the audience is unmotivated, peripheral cues should be used whereby it is more effective for quick heuristic-based analysis. However, alternately it recommends the provision of strong arguments for a motivated audience as they process information objectively and elaborate on the message (Dainton & Zelley, 2004).
• Again using the example with the dating site, their homepage could probably introduce visitors in a speedy attractive fashion that is tailored for a good heuristic-based analysis appealing to the target audience through peripheral cues synonymous with successful online dating experiences. On second look it should inform the visitor about the website in a simple, easy to read and authoritative manner while also setting the tone for the remaining web pages. This is consistent with the evaluative requirements of Sillence et al.’s (2006) model of trust, mentioned here, and the ELM whereby motivated individuals at the second stage take an elaborative approach to processing website content.

Using this insight, your website strategy can be improved quite a bit. I won’t be surprised if a you can’t find more ways to benefit from these theories so please share with the rest of us here when any ideas come to mind.