Inducing Resistance to Conspiracy Theory Propaganda: Testing Inoculation and Metainoculation Strategies

John A. Banas

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Misinformation and Its Impacts Social and Intergroup Psychology Psychology of Social Influence

Abstract

This investigation examined the boundaries of inoculation theory by examining how inoculation can be applied to conspiracy theory propaganda as well as inoculation itself (called metainoculation). A 3-phase experiment with 312 participants compared 3 main groups: no-treatment control, inoculation, and metainoculation. Research questions explored how inoculation and metainoculation effects differ based on the argument structure of inoculation messages (fact- vs. logic-based). The attack message was a 40-minute chapter from the 9/11 Truth conspiracy theory film, Loose Change: Final Cut. The results indicated that both the inoculation treatments induced more resistance than the control message, with the fact-based treatment being the most effective. The results also revealed that metainoculation treatments reduced the efficacy of the inoculation treatments.

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References

2003The Uses of Argument 1986Communication and Persuasion 2015Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change 1971The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation 1966The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays 1983In defense of external invalidity.2002The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice 1999Of Conspiracy Theories

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2022Psychological Inoculation against Misinformation: Current Evidence and Future Directions 2021Inoculation theory in the post‐truth era: Extant findings and new frontiers for contested science, misinformation, and conspiracy theories 2020Prebunking interventions based on the psychological theory of “inoculation” can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures.2016Changing Conspiracy Beliefs through Rationality and Ridiculing 2020The different forms of COVID-19 misinformation and their consequences 2016

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