We would benefit from better theory-informed health campaigns to educate and, perhaps, even inoculate. 

Josh Compton

Purpose: Hyperthermia is a fatal risk for children in closed vehicles. These “hot car deaths” can happen when caregivers underestimate risks of leaving children unattended in enclosed cars, or as happens even more often, when caregivers misremember that a child is in a rear-facing, backseat child safety restraint and unintentionally leave them in the car. For decades, scholars, medical professionals, and health advocates have called for better public information campaigns to combat these preventable deaths and injuries. 

Method: This work offers a theoretical/conceptual analysis of inoculation theory as a messaging strategy to reduce heat-related car seat deaths. 

Results: The issue of heat-related car seat deaths is consistent with the boundary conditions and assumptions of the inoculation theory of resistance to influence. 

Conclusion: Inoculation theory-informed health campaigns could be effective ways to shift caregivers’ thinking on the risk of hot car deaths and their susceptibility. Special attention is paid to health campaigns that could help both caregivers and children. 

Compton, J. (2018, November). Inoculation theory and misremembered child car seat occupancy [paper presentation]. National Communication Association, Salt Lake City, UT, United States. *Top Paper Panel