(2010) might suggest that the source factor and the relation of the source to the information being presented actually played a significant role in the level of elaboration desired/sought and the ultimate conclusions made/efficacy of persuasion. This is not empirically proven in the research, however the ontology assumed by the authors is also not empirically founded. ii. A study involving 164 unmarried college students that were not cohabiting with members of the opposite sex examined the split in persuasion studies between active and passive theories of cultivation, ultimately demonstrating that both modes can be seen to exist in the development of communication patterns and that both can be incorporated into the elaboration likelihood model (Schroeder 2005).

iii. Different populations divided by cognitive proclivities were examined in another experimental study, which found that emotional influences and information, which are affected by source factors and which have been traditionally discounted or downplayed in most understanding and applications of the elaboration likelihood model, are actually highly influential even in groups with higher cognitive desires (Morris et al. 2005). Again, this suggests that source factors and related factors can have a more primary and more significant impact on persuasion than current findings and beliefs hold.

III. There is still a need for ongoing research in this area, as no current studies found directly examine the role of...

Existing literature does not adequately address the role that source factors and other related factors play in the development of persuasion processes and decision making.
a. Findings have been observed that question certain of the underlying principles and beliefs of the elaboration likelihood model and the role that source factors play, yet certain basic assumptions remain unquestioned and uninvestigated

b. The elaboration likelihood model has been examined and tested in many ways over the decades of its existence, and it appears to be a reliable model in most aspects according to empirical evidence

c. The strength and longevity of the elaboration likelihood model is also a weakness, however, in that this leads to the blind acceptance of some of its foundational principles or long-running assumptions without adequate empirical testing

d. Direct investigations of the roles that source factors play during initial phases of persuasion according to the elaboration likelihood model, especially in the immediate selection of persuasion routes and in the creation of elaboration levels, are needed to make the literature more complete

e. Examining the structure of the elaboration likelihood model form the bottom up, beginning with an investigation of source factor influences limited to the initiation of the persuasion process, is recommended.