Extant work is encouraging, and timely, while consequential scientific issues are ripe for attention from an inoculation perspective.

Josh Compton, Sander van der linden, john cook, & melisa basol

Inoculation Theory and Science Communication: Extant Findings and New Directions 

Inoculation theory explains how immunity to counter-attitudinal messages is conferred by preemptively exposing people to weakened doses of challenging information. The theory has been applied in a number of contexts (e.g., politics, health, commerce) and across a number of issues (e.g., controversial policy issues, political candidate image) in its 50+ year history; one of the newest contexts for inoculation theory work is science communication. Research has revealed that when a desirable position on a scientific issue (e.g., climate change) exists, conventional preemptive (prophylactic) inoculation can help to protect it, and that even when people have undesirable positions, therapeutic inoculation messages can have positive effects. To build on extant findings, we call for further research to explain and predict the efficacy of inoculation theory messaging in science communication, to help inform better public understandings of such issues as climate change, GMOs, vaccine hesitancy, and contested health- and science-beliefs (e.g., conspiracy theories and COVID-19). 

Compton, J., van der Linden, S., Cook, J., & Basol, M. (2019, May). Inoculation theory and science communication: Extant findings and new directions [paper presentation]. International Communication Association, Washington DC, United States.