Inoculating against Persuasion by Scientific Racism Propaganda: The Moderating Roles of Propaganda Form and Subtlety
| Autor: | Hughes, Brian, Goldberg, Beth, Criezis, Meili, Braddock, Kurt, Miller-Idriss, Cynthia, Dashtgard, Pasha, White, Kesa |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences SocArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication|Social Influence and Political Communication bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Communication|Social Influence and Political Communication |
| Popis: | The general effectiveness of attitudinal inoculation in reducing the persuasive appeal of undesirable beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors is well-established. However, there remain numerous, as-yet unexplored subtleties in the development of attitudinal inoculation countermeasures intended to prevent violent extremism. Demographic receptivity and variations in reactance and support measures are two such subtleties. Ongoing research into conditional variance promises to enrich and refine the efficacy of inoculation and our understanding of how inoculation works.Toward that goal, this study (N = 404) examines the moderating effects of medium type and message subtlety on the counter-persuasive effects of attitudinal inoculation. This study tests these effects against propaganda that conveys certain beliefs, attitudes, and intentions consistent with scientific racism. Through a 2 (inoculation vs. control) x 2 (video vs. meme) x 2 (subtle vs. blatant) controlled experiment, this study reaffirms the established science that attitudinal inoculation prevents persuasion by far-right propaganda. Generally, inoculated individuals demonstrated reduced persuadability -- as indicated by felt gratification and attribution of credibility to the source of the propaganda, and intention to support the source of the propaganda. However, both medium type and message subtlety were correlated with variations in these effects, including effects on attitudinal response. These results have significant implications for the development and distribution of inoculation campaigns to prevent far-right violent extremism. They also lead us to refine our cognitive model of inoculation itself. As with viral inoculations, attitudinal inoculation only sometimes confers “pure” immunity to manipulative and/or false content. As suggested by our results, inoculation can also confer more variable forms of resistance depending on circumstance, moderating symptomology and severity of “infection” and “cognitive immune response.” |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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