Source Expertise, Time of Source Identification, and Involvement in Persuasion: An Elaborative Processing Perspective

Abstract The interactive role of source expertise, time of source identification, and involvement was examined in an experiment on advertising effectiveness. In general, findings support an elaborative processing explanation. A three-way interaction among the manipulated variables emerged in the study, which utilized print advertisement stimuli. The findings also suggest that the source expertise information was processed more as a central persuasion cue than as peripheral information. Managerial implications are offered.