Persuasive Communication from a Military Force to Local Civilians: A Cognitive Treatment of PsyOps Messages Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Here is presented a model of message processing using one of the leading paradigms in social psychology of persuasion as main theoretical framework: the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). Adapting this dual process theory to military context and actions and more specifically psychological operations in asymmetric conflicts allows developing a model taking into account many message characteristics as well as specific factors such as local culture of the audience. It focuses on measuring capacity and motivation of the agents to determine the effect of message sending on attitudes through a detailed cognitive treatment.