The peripheral route to persuasion is one of the two factors in the elaboration likelihood model which consists of two different routes: central route processing (hyperlink ) and peripheral.
The peripheral route to persuasion consists of a person’s association with positive or negative qualities in the stimulus that isn’t related to the logical quality of the stimulus.
For example, in a speaker this would be things like the attractiveness, perceived authority, or superficial charm of the speaker instead of the quality or rationality of the message. In contrast, the direct method of persuasion relies on the logic of the presentation. This would be the rationality and logic of the speaker’s message instead of their looks or personality. Central route processing occurs when the listener or audience is actually taking part in the message by thinking logically and truly listening to the speaker. This only occurs when the listener is motivated and is able to comprehend what the speaker is saying.
The peripheral route occurs when individuals lack the motivation or the capability to understand the speaker’s message.