A critical appraisal of inoculation theory: Towards an audience driven communication strategy for dealing with misinformation on environmental matters

Inoculation is a communication technique that uses threatening information to arouse
recipients’ attention and to stimulate them to construct counterargument that will make them more resistant to future disinformation. Inoculation messages have been used to fight misinformation in different domains such as health care and climate change, quite often with positive effects.
These findings notwithstanding, we contend that the potential of inoculation theory is
limited. Based on recent cognitive dissonance theory, our hypothesis suggests that inoculation messages are effective for recipients with high attitude certainty and cognitive confidence but counterproductive for those with moderate to low certainty or confidence. Moving beyond inoculation theory, our research objective is to show that such techniques may have a positive impact on individuals who are already convinced about certain environmental behaviors but could potentially have negative effects on individuals who have not yet been persuaded.
To test this, three media messages about wastewater reuse were tested, with variations in the placement of a fear-inducing forewarning paragraph. The resonance of these articles was tested on a student population (N=380) using qualitative and statistical methods. The hypothesis was confirmed as the fear-inducing articles increased negative emotional response among respondents who feared for contamination, while the positive article resonated more with more trusting, ecologically minded respondents.
These findings are particularly relevant in the current political context. Many wellintentioned pro-environmental messages utilize fear inducing arguments. Our argumentation recognizes the importance of engaging the audience on an emotional level by appealing to its lived values, opinions, and perspectives. However, our findings suggests that whilst fearinducing arguments might have a positive impact on audiences that are already convinced, they are likely counterproductive for the target audience that still needs to be persuaded.