Episode #49: Inoculating against persuasion with Josh Compton. Opinion Science. October 25, 2021.
Josh Compton studies how “inoculating” people against persuasion can make them more resistant to arguments they encounter later. Dr. Compton is an associate professor of speech at Dartmouth and has written a lot about “inoculation theory,” which began (as a theory) back in the 60s with the work of William McGuire. We talk about lots of inoculation theory’s many extensions and applications.
Things we mention in this episode:
- The “virgin-soil epidemic” explanation of disease spread among indigenous people following Columbus’ voyage to the Americas. (See this Atlantic article by Ostler, 2020)
- William McGuire’s original formulation of “inoculation theory” (McGuire, 1964)
- A lot of the work Josh discusses is reviewed in Compton et al. (2021) and Compton (2021).
- Online games that help inoculate against fake news: “Bad News”, “Breaking Harmony Square”, and “Go Viral!”
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