My Big Decision of Fall 2008: The Great Cupcake Dilemma

We are recipients of messages of persuasion each day, and sometimes we take a central route to persuasion, whereas other times, we take a peripheral route to persuasion. When we take the central route to persuasion, the strength of the arguments influences us, and when we take the peripheral route to persuasion, we do not think critically about the arguments and are influenced by other, more superficial cues (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).

After I left our social psychology class today, I went grocery shopping with my friend Lola. (Remember her from my blog about the spotlight effect?) I mostly went with her to catch up and to avoid homework. However, when we got to the bakery section of HEB, I saw these really cute Halloween-themed cupcakes and knew that I just had to buy them. They were frosted and had plastic rings stuck in the frosting. There were vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes, and they had either ghost rings or monster rings. I decided that I wanted the vanilla cupcakes with monster rings. But when I started looking for that combination, I realized that the only vanilla cupcakes left had ghost rings in the frosting. For a second, I strongly considered opening the packages and switching the rings so that I could have the exact Halloween cupcakes I wanted. I quickly realized that that was not the best idea, but then I had no clue which cupcakes to choose. The vanilla cupcakes with the ghost rings? Or the chocolate cupcakes with the monster rings?

Lola began trying to persuade me to purchase the chocolate cupcakes with the monster rings, and it was at that point that I took the peripheral route to persuasion. I was tired and did not feel like thinking critically about the decision. If I had given it the least bit of serious thought, I would have realized that the flavor I wanted was much more important than the decoration on top, but like I said, I was way too tired to think logically or critically. In addition, I took the source of the persuasion into account more than I considered the message itself. Lola, the source, told me that I should choose the cupcakes with the monster rings, and that the flavor did not really matter. Although I was unsure of Lola's expertise on the subject of cupcakes, I reminded myself that she is trustworthy. Also, she is incredibly likable; as my peer and a very close friend, she is similar to me, and the fact that she is attractive does not hurt her persuasion skills either (Carnegie, 1936)!

So I ended up buying the chocolate cupcakes with the monster rings...just so that I could have the cutesy plastic monster rings! I was not motivated to take the central route to persuasion, so I ended up taking the peripheral route to persuasion, based on superficial cues: the likability of Lola and those awesome plastic rings.

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York: Pocket Books. (Reprinted in 1972)

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag.