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Despite more than six decades of research, foundational arguments about mechanisms proposed in inoculation theory to bring about persuasion resistance have gone untested. We conducted an experiment...

This investigation assessed the mechanisms that contribute to post-attack attitudinal persistence. A three-phase experiment was designed to uncover why inoculation works even after it has been chal...

Two studies establish reliability and validity of the print perceived message sensation value scale (PPMSV). For study one, 397 participants responded to a single high- and a single low-sensation value anti-smoking message. In study two, 284 participants responded to a single high- and a single low-sensation value anti-crystal meth message. Results of an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the PMSV of a print message can be assessed using a 12-item three-dimensional scale, making an important contribution to the literature as no similar measures existed for print messages prior to the PPMSV. The newly developed PPMSV scale remained stable across sensation seeking levels and two sets of anti-drug messages (anti-tobacco & crystal meth). Results provided support for convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of the scale and point to PMSV as an important element that contributes to perceived message effectiveness and attitude toward the print ad.

Although it may be tempting to assume that people’s attitudes toward the First Amendment are resolute, extant research and the findings of this investigation suggest the opposite: that Amer...

This study explored the potential of inoculation messages to protect the pro-destination attitudes of potential tourists. As this study argues, much research has focused on the promotion of destination images, sustainable tourism, and more recently the impact of Tourism 2.0 (i.e., hyper connected, multidimensional consumer knowledge sharing across social media platforms) on the industry. Yet, little attention has been given to communication strategies designed to pre-emptively protect tourist attitudes from negative online peer reviews. Therefore, via a three-phase experiment the current investigation explored the impact of different (i.e., no message, supportive, and inoculation) communication message strategies on tourist pro-destination attitudes when faced with a negative peer review of the destination on social media. Results indicate that for participants exposed to negative peer reviews presented via social media inoculation messages protected pro-destination attitudes better than other message types.

The objective was to test whether precrisis inoculation-stimulated conversations can positively impact key beliefs vital to the prosperity of a nation following an act of terrorism. The experiment introduced a precrisis inoculation message about the Department of Homeland Security prior to a simulated crisis portraying the downing of an aircraft. Results affirmed: that, compared to individuals in the control condition, inoculated individuals were less likely to believe that past failures of acts of terrorism resulted from terrorist incompetence; inoculated individuals indicated greater belief that the politically motivated acts of violence will not limit their future opportunities; and that interpersonal talk about such acts and the government's ability to effectively handle them were inversely associated with the likelihood of postponing air travel.

This study focuses on the problem of collapsed ‘stay in the market’ (SIM) beliefs during financial crises. More specifically, the goal of this investigation was to ascertain whether or not inoculation messages are a viable preemptive crisis communication strategy to protect the SIM beliefs of inexperienced investors amidst a major stock market downturn. Inoculation messages were compared to both supportive messages and no-message controls to determine their effectiveness in protecting SIM beliefs. Additionally, the impact of inoculation messages on beliefs in the absence of a crisis and the impact of crisis message modality (i.e. video versus print) on inoculation-generated resistance were explored. A between-subjects factorial design (3 × 2 plus one additional condition) was designed to explore three hypotheses and two research questions. Results indicate that inoculation messages can serve as a viable preemptive financial crisis communication strategy and that inoculation messages did not harm S...

Background and Objective: Although preventable, substance addiction has become one of the most prominent public health problems facing the nation. As a result, treatment programs and centers have f...

This study builds on the burgeoning concept of integrating a vocal component into inoculation-generated resistance. Specifically, this research attempts to isolate the vocal and subvocal components of the inoculation process to clarify recent research that has raised questions about the long-standing proposition that inoculation-motivated counterarguing is an exclusively subvocal process. Furthermore, it separately measures belief levels and belief certainty. The pattern of results indicates that postinoculation talk (PIT) following exposure to the inoculation message can boost belief certainty. These findings complement recent work that suggests that the content of PIT serves reassurance and advocacy purposes.

It is well established that—among individuals who hold an attitude toward a topic—inoculation messages can help promote resistance to counterattitudinal attacks. Yet, the utility of inoculation theory for communication campaigns may ultimately depend upon the effects inoculation messages have on individuals who are initially opposed or neutral regarding the topic. A three-phase experiment (N = 282) was conducted to examine the effects of inoculation and supportive messages among individuals with neutral and opposing attitudes. The results revealed that, compared to the control groups, inoculation and supportive messages moved neutral and opposing attitudes in the message-advocated direction. Moreover, inoculation and supportive messages protected these attitudinal gains from attack-message-induced slippage. Since inoculation messages outperformed supportive messages, inoculation has potential utility for communication campaigns.

This investigation tested the effectiveness of inoculation as a pre-crisis strategy in combating the effects of politically motivated violent acts. A four-phase experiment was conducted involving 355 national consumer panel participants. The findings indicate that inoculation can be an effective pre-crisis message strategy as it was successful in enhancing public beliefs in the ability of government agencies to prevent, and minimize the effects of, violent acts. This strategy also created a ‘blanket of protection’ that extended beyond the focal politically motivated attack event as it enhanced the confidence in government agencies to manage national crises in general. Inoculation was also effective in lowering the intensity of experienced fear evoked by the threat of violent attacks and it enhanced the ability of individuals to cope with the aftermath of a crisis.

Although the effectiveness of inoculation as a strategy for promoting resistance to attitude change is fairly well established, the potential of inoculation messages to offer cross-protection for related, but untreated, attitudes warrants additional attention from scholars. The reported study tested the “blanket of protection” conferred by inoculation. Participants (N = 118) were randomly assigned to read an inoculation message addressing a target topic and subsequently had their attitudes toward three related, but untreated, topics attacked. The results offer some evidence that inoculation messages can confer cross-protection for related attitudes. Participants in the inoculation condition reported greater perceptions of threat, greater counterarguing, and less attitude change in response to attacks than participants in the control condition for two of the three untreated topics. Counterarguing in response to attacks on untreated attitudes appears to be primarily responsible for cross-protection.

This article joins the well-established Prospect Theory (PT) with inoculation theory. Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT), an offspring theory of PT, is also mentioned as a way to contextualize the results of this study. A three-phase experiment set in the context of financial investing compared the ability of loss and gain frame inoculation messages to protect investor beliefs about staying in the stock market during financial crises. The dependent variables in this investigation were belief level and belief certainty about staying in the stock market during financial crises. Results indicate that, as hypothesized, loss frame inoculation messages protected beliefs better than gain frame messages. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

For much of inoculation theory's 50-year history, research has focused on intrapersonal processes of resistance such as threat and subvocal counterarguing. More recently, attention has shifted to interpersonal processes of inoculation-conferred resistance, specifically, postinoculation talk (PIT). This study examined the substance of PIT, and how people may talk to one another for reassurance and advocacy following an inoculation. Findings indicate advocacy attempts were significantly greater within the inoculation condition. Those inoculated were more likely to a) pass along material included in the inoculation treatment, b) share issue-relevant novel material, c) talk about topics related to the target issue, and d) be challenged by conversational partners when attempting advocacy. Results help explain what inoculated individuals talk about following an inoculation treatment, and how PIT may spread the process of resistance along social networks.

Referred to as the “most consistent and reliable method for conferring resistance to persuasion” by Miller et al. in 2013, over the past 50 years inoculation has exerted significant influence in shaping theoretical and contextual resistance research and message design. Used as a message strategy, inoculation elicits threat, or realized attitudinal/behavioral vulnerability, which motivates individuals to shore up attitudinal/behavioral defenses by providing both material and guided practice aiding the process of effective counterarguing, which in turn increases individuals’ resistance to attitudinal/behavioral challenges. The motivation is responsible for sustaining the inoculation effect over an extended period of time. Inoculation messages, however, do much more than just inspire a robust defense. They motivate individuals to engage others regarding the attitudinal/behavioral topic in an attempt to reassure and advocate their positions, thus diffusing the inoculation message over social networks. The attitudinal/behavior protection elicited by inoculation messages is not limited to the message’s target attitude/behavior, but instead spreads over related attitudes/behaviors as well, thus increasing the pragmatic utility of this message strategy. Inoculation’s effectiveness extends beyond the realm of resistance, as inoculation messages are also effective in both shaping and changing attitudes/behaviors. Because of its success, inoculation-based message strategies have been applied in numerous contexts researchers and clinicians beganand with numerous topics. Some of inoculation’s applied contexts include commercial, instruction/education, interpersonal, political, corporate, public relations, cross-cultural, health, and risk. More specifically, in the health and risk contexts, inoculation has been applied in promotion or prevention capacity on topics such as politically-motivated violent acts, smoking, drinking, unprotected sex, vaccination, and health-related policy, with current research exploring its efficacy in addiction interventions and indoor tanning-bed usage prevention. Inoculation may also be used as a strategy to reduce recidivism in criminal prison inmates and preventing verbal aggression in schools. Additional promising areas for application of inoculation-based strategies may include the promotion and protection of healthy eating habits as well as positive attitudes/behaviors toward mammograms, colonoscopies, breastfeeding, and regular exercise, just to name a few. As Ivanov suggested, the “application of the strategy [is] boundless.”

Although there is general agreement the causes and consequences of jealousy bear on self-esteem, research on the experience and expression of jealousy has produced conflicting results regarding gender differences. From the perspective of terror management theory TMT; 1), individuals adopt meaningful cultural worldviews—including culturally derived and expressed sexual attitudes—to strengthen their self-esteem and ward off existential anxiety. The present research assessed the idea that admitting vulnerability to feelings of sexual or emotional jealousy can pose a threat to self-esteem, thus altering how the emotion is expressed and communicated. Accordingly, we tested and found that men—generally thought to experience, exhibit, and express greater sexual jealousy than women—reported less sexual jealousy when mortality concerns were made salient. It is argued that gender differences in the expression of sexual jealousy (although not necessarily the experience) are moderated by self-esteem concerns associated with socialization and enculturation.

This investigation explored the potential for enhancing the potency of inoculation’s strategy by examining the relationships among the certainty of the attack, threat, and resistance. Using different moderately involving issues for each, three experimental studies were conducted involving a total of 275 participants. In contrast with some previous findings, the combined results of the investigation suggest a positive and more linear relationship among these variables. As argued in the investigation, increasing the certainty in the occurrence of the attack seems to increase attitudinal threat and resistance; yet the best method to manipulate attack certainty remains in need of further exploration.

This investigation further nuanced previous designs in comparing the effectiveness of 4 IMC message sequencing strategies (publicity–publicity, publicity–advertising, advertising–publicity, and advertising–advertising) by introducing them into a new context—new product introductions. In addition, this investigation introduced corporate image and credibility as moderators of the effectiveness of sequence strategies. A 2-phase experiment was conducted involving 423 participants. The results revealed the publicity–publicity sequence strategy is most effective in generating positive product attitude and purchase intent, followed by either sequence of publicity and advertising, with the advertising–advertising strategy being least effective. Positive corporate image and high credibility attenuated the effectiveness of the publicity strategy.

Inoculation theory has seen dramatic theoretical development since it was first introduced in the early 1960s, and applied research has explored its efficacy in such domains as politics, health, and commerce. This chapter notes a dearth in political campaign inoculation scholarship in recent years and calls for renewed interest. A survey of inoculation research offers a nuanced portrait of how inoculation has functioned in campaigns, yet several findings remain unexplained by the theory. The chapter concludes with proposals for future political campaign inoculation research, exploring new campaign technologies and new insights into how inoculation functions in political campaigns.

The manuscript offers a review and critique of the most popular techniques (the thought listing process; the recognition check-off procedure; the closed-ended question measures; and the mechanical testing measures) currently used to assess the concept of counterarguing in the cross-disciplinary literature of the social sciences. The advantages and drawbacks of each technique are summarized. Subsequently, recent empirical findings comparing the differential effectiveness of some of the above techniques in different domains are reviewed and discussed. Furthermore, empirical evidence is examined pertaining to the effectiveness and importance of using multi-technique strategies when attempting to capture the concept of counterarguing. Finally, implications are drawn and recommendations are proposed for how to more effectively measure the concept of counterarguing.

The efficacy of inoculation theory has been confirmed by decades of empirical research, yet optimizing its effectiveness remains a vibrant line of investigation. The present research turns to psychological reactance theory for a means of enhancing the core mechanisms of inoculation--threat and refutational preemption. FINDINGS from a multisite study indicate reactance enhances key resistance outcomes, including: threat, anger at attack message source, negative cognitions, negative affect, anticipated threat to freedom, anticipated attack message source derogation, perceived threat to freedom, perceived attack message source derogation, and counterarguing. Most importantly, reactance-enhanced inoculations result in lesser attitude change--the ultimate measure of resistance. Language: en

Contemporary inoculation scholarship has focused on the process of resistance to persuasion, and recently begun to examine various incidental effects that may accompany inoculation treatments. This study considers how talk fits within both of these areas, not only as a byproduct of inoculation, but also as a potentially important contributor to the process of resistance. Results indicate inoculation not only enhances talk about the target issue, but such talk appears to bolsters resistance to subsequent counterattitudinal messages. Les effets de la discussion postinoculation sur la resistance aux influences La litterature contemporaine sur l’inoculation s’est concentree sur le mecanisme de la resistance a la persuasion, et a recemment commencea examiner differents effets contingents qui pourraient accompagner des traitements d’inoculation. Cette etude examine les manieres par lesquelles la discussion correspond a ces deux domaines, non seulement comme effet secondaire de l’inoculation, mais aussi comme un participant possiblement important au mecanisme de resistance. Les resultats indiquent que l’inoculation ne fait pas qu’augmenter la discussion a propos de l’enjeu cible, mais que cette discussion semble renforcer la resistance a des messages de contre-attitude subsequents. Mots cles : inoculation, resistance, discussion, contre-argumentation, modelisation par equation structurelle Der Wirkung von Postinokulationsgesprachen auf den Widerstand gegen Beeinflussung Die aktuelle Inokulationsforschung fokussiert auf den Prozess des Widerstands gegen Persuasion und begann unlangst damit, die verschiedenen zufalligen Effekte, die bei Inokulationstreatments auftreten konnen, zu untersuchen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht integriert Gesprache in beide dieser Forschungsfelder, und zwar nicht nur als Nebenprodukt von Inokulation, sondern als potentiell wichtiger Faktor im Prozess des Widerstands. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass Inokulation nicht nur Gesprache uber das Zielthema anregt, sondern dass Gesprache den Widerstand gegen nachfolgende Botschaften gegen die eigene Einstellung zu stutzen scheinen. Schlusselbegriffe: Inokulation, Widerstand, Gesprache, Counterarguing, Strukturgleichungsmodelle

This investigation tested the interaction effects of attitude base and multiple attacks on the effectiveness of inoculation. A 4-phase experiment was conducted involving 290 participants. The results indicate that when rendered to a second attack, cognitive inoculation messages generated greater resistance to counterattitudinal attacks when presented to individuals whose attitude base was primarily cognitive, rather than affective. The reverse was also found to be true as affective inoculation messages generated greater resistance to counterattitudinal attacks when presented to individuals whose attitude base was primarily affective, rather than cognitive. Combined inoculation messages worked equally well as the attitude matching, and better than the attitude mismatching, messages.

Threat plays a pivotal role in many theoretical explanations for how inoculation confers resistance, but some empirical data raise questions about threat's role in inoculation. Our study explores some of the unresolved dimensions of threat in inoculation theory. Results indicate that an explicit forewarning included in an inoculation treatment message generates threat, as does the presence of counterarguments and their refutations. Follow-up tests suggest that the forewarning component may be most responsible for generated threat in inoculation, and that a prompt to consider experienced threat may lead to enhanced resistance to subsequent attack messages.

This study uses ethnography to explore how communicatively negotiated ideoculture influences membership and participation in a sporting community. Current precepts of sport and ethnographic research on sporting cultures lack a communication focus, in spite of the important role communication plays in making possible sport culture and ideoculture. This ethnographic research was based on an amateur university soccer club. Results indicate that an ideoculture around team cohesion was closely related to team notions about success and was discernible in behaviors associated with politeness and facework. Club members were expected to show appropriate displays of team cohesion. Such displays were often associated with how members tacitly allocated tiers of club membership and participation amongst each other.

This investigation introduced the attitude base (cognitive or affective) as a moderator in the resistance domain and effectively partitioned the role of affect from cognition by properly delineating its function. A three-phase experiment was conducted involving 290 participants. The results confirmed the role of the original elements in the process of resistance introduced by McGuire: threat and counterarguing output. Furthermore, the results indicated that inoculation messages were most effective when their content matched the attitude base. Cognitive inoculation messages generated greater resistance to counterattitudinal attacks when presented to individuals whose attitude base was primarily cognitive, rather than affective, in nature. The reverse was also found to be true as affective inoculation messages generated greater resistance to counterattitudinal attacks when presented to individuals whose attitude base was primarily affective, rather than cognitive, in nature.