Inoculation theory revisited
Reinterpretations, extensions, and new directions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22093486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Guangchao Charles Feng (0000-0003-0563-9885, Hong Kong Baptist University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2297-900X • E-ISSN: 2297-900X |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1576772 |
| OpenAlex | W4415723089 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 61 |
Inoculation theory offers a unique perspective on how beliefs can be fortified against persuasive attacks. However, several aspects of the theory warrant further exploration and reinterpretation, particularly its analogies with immunology. The paper aims to broaden the theory’s boundary conditions by delving into thought-provoking analogies between immunology and persuasion. The author redefines multiple key concepts within inoculation theory and addresses a range of existing issues associated with classic inoculation theory, including the distinction between passive and active defense and addressing “infected” people and “allergy” with therapeutic inoculation. The paper concludes by proposing future research directions that include exploring diverse, especially mRNA forms of “inoculation” and formulating a series of conceptual propositions
Conceptual framework · Warrant · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
Social contagion theory
Structure-mapping
The Psychology of Fake News
The Spread of Behavior in an Online Social Network Experiment
Models and Metaphors
The role and impact of affect in the process of resistance to persuasion
Effects of Postinoculation Talk on Resistance to Influence
Inoculation and Narrative Strategies in Competitive Framing of Three Health Policy Issues
Disentangling Item and Testing Effects in Inoculation Research on Online Misinformation
The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks
Lazy, not biased
Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation
Revisiting the effects of an inoculation treatment on psychological reactance
Inoculation Theory of Resistance to Influence at Maturity
Cutting the Bunk
Prophylactic Versus Therapeutic Inoculation Treatments for Resistance to Influence
The Attitude Base as a Moderator of the Effectiveness of Inoculation Strategy
On the Nature of Reactance and its Role in Persuasive Health Communication
Nuances about the Role and Impact of Affect in Inoculation
Apprehension or motivation to defend attitudes? Exploring the underlying threat mechanism in inoculation-induced resistance to persuasion
The Effectiveness of Supportive and Refutational Defenses in Immunizing and Restoring Beliefs Against Persuasion
Reasoning and learning by analogy
Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires
The case for motivated reasoning
Does Media Literacy Help Identification of Fake News? Information Literacy Helps, but Other Literacies Don't
The relative efficacy of various types of prior belief-defense in producing immunity against persuasion
Understanding and combatting misinformation across 16 countries on six continents
Warning and persuasion
Forewarned and forearmed? Two meta-analysis syntheses of forewarnings of influence appeals
Resistance to persuasion conferred by active and passive prior refutation of the same and alternative counterarguments
Boosting the Potency of Resistance
Rethinking the Inoculation Analogy
The Effects of Initial Belief Level on Inoculation Theory and Its Proposed Mechanisms
Inducing Resistance to Conspiracy Theory Propaganda
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |