The Combined Influence Hypothesis: Central and Peripheral Antecedents of Attitude toward the Ad

Abstract Two competing hypotheses relative to the formation of attitude toward the ad (Aad)provide the basis for an experiment. The peripheral-cue hypothesis views Aadas an outcome of consumer response to executional elements of an ad while the combined-influence hypothesis anticipates a joint effect of central message arguments and peripheral cues in Aadformation. Results supported the combined-influence hypothesis across varying levels of processing motivation and opportunity with differences in the relative magnitude of argument and cue effects consistent with The Elaboration Likelihood Model.