Persuasion: One or two processes?

The Unimodel treats persuasion as a judgmental process wherein recipients of persuasive communication draw conclusions from evidence on the basis of background knowledge. In contrast to dual-process models of persuasion, the Unimodel treats message arguments and heuristic/peripheral cues as functionally equivalent: The impact of a given bit of persuasive information on attitudes does not depend on whether it is of the cue or argument type, but depends on a number of judgment-relevant parameters. We discuss findings from the persuasion literature from this perspective and describe new predictions derived from the Unimodel as well as empirical evidence. We conclude with a discussion of criticism forwarded by dual-process theorists toward the single-process conception and present an outlook on future research.