Protecting Against Disinformation: Using Inoculation to Cultivate Reactance Towards Astroturf Attacks

The theoretically-driven inoculation strategy has increasingly become used to counter disinformation regarding pivotal societal issues such as COVID-19 and climate change. The current study examines its ability to cultivate psychological reactance toward unethical public relations attacks called ast...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public relations research 2023-05, Vol.35 (3), p.162-181
Main Author: Boman, Courtney D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crisis communication
disinformation
inoculation
prebunking
psychological reactance
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The theoretically-driven inoculation strategy has increasingly become used to counter disinformation regarding pivotal societal issues such as COVID-19 and climate change. The current study examines its ability to cultivate psychological reactance toward unethical public relations attacks called astroturf, ultimately making the disinformation less persuasive. To do so, a between-subjects online experiment (N = 534) was conducted. Results show: 1) the use of inoculation messages outperforms the often-recommended paracrisis no response strategy, 2) combining inoculation with explicit details and autonomy support can elicit reactance toward disinformation, and 3) the use of this strategy can influence attitudes and future behavioral intentions to engage with the attacked organization. Guidance and implications for increasing the development of proactive PR messages within research and practice are discussed.
ISSN:1062-726X
1532-754X
DOI:10.1080/1062726X.2023.2195184