Political involvement: A critique and a process‐oriented reformulation

Abstract

This article critiques the hierarchy of effects research on involvement, arguing that the evidence does not support the notion that the order of communication effects differs under high and low involvement. It is also asserted that the hierarchy model has failed to specify the cognitive processes that underly low involvement and that this has resulted in a somewhat simplified view of low involvement processing. Focusing on political involvement, the article then proposes a process based model of political persuasion that asserts that under high involvement, political information is processed systematically or deeply, whereas a more peripheral processing strategy is invoked under low political involvement. Additional hypotheses are developed on the basis of the cognitive response approach and Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action. Implications for political persuasion effects are subsequently discussed.

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