Assessing inoculation's effectiveness in motivating resistance to conspiracy propaganda in Finnish and United States samples.

Introduction: This study tested the motivational power of inoculation to foster resistance to conspiracy propaganda ( Movement), comparing inoculation effects across United States and Finnish study participants.

Method: We used a 2 inoculation (treatment vs. control)  ×  2 national culture (American vs.

Inoculating Against Anti-Vaccination Conspiracies.

This study examined the efficacy of inoculation treatments in preventing anti-vaccination propaganda. Study predictions were tested in an independent-group experiment ( = 165), wherein participants were randomly assigned to a fact-based inoculation or a logic-based inoculation or a control message, with an excerpt from an anti-vaccination conspiracy film, , used as a counterattitudinal attack message. The results indicated that both inoculation treatments (fact-based and logic-based) were effective at instilling resistance to counter-persuasion, as compared to the control condition, and both types of inoculation messages were equal in their potential to facilitate resistance.

The game increases accuracy in discerning between real and inauthentic social media accounts.

The proliferation of political mis/disinformation on social media has led many scholars to embrace "inoculation" techniques, where individuals are trained to identify the signs of low-veracity information prior to exposure. Coordinated information operations frequently spread mis/disinformation through inauthentic or "troll" accounts that appear to be trustworthy members to the targeted polity, as in Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election. We experimentally tested the efficacy of inoculation against inauthentic online actors, using the , a free, online educational tool that teaches how to spot markers of inauthenticity.

Simmering on the Back Burner or Playing with Fire? Examining the Consequences of Back-Burner Digital Communication Among Ex-Partners.

Back burners are people with whom one communicates to potentially establish a future romantic or sexual relationship, and these relationships are common among college students. Using a sample of noncollege adults currently in committed relationships ( = 246) obtained via Amazon's MTurk, this study examines how a prior relationship role with a desired back burner (i.e.

Reducing Psychological Reactance to Health Promotion Messages: Comparing Preemptive and Postscript Mitigation Strategies.

This study compared the relative efficacy of two strategies designed to mitigate psychological reactance in health campaigns by using reminders of behavioral autonomy: preemptive scripts, which appear before the appeal, and restoration postscripts, which appear after. Employing a mixed-model experiment with a 2 (threat to freedom: low vs. high) × 3 (reactance-mitigation strategy: control vs.

More on Inoculating Against Reactance to Persuasive Health Messages: The Paradox of Threat.

This research examined the efficacy of inoculation as a strategy to mitigate psychological reactance based on the level of threat communicated in the forewarning and subsequent persuasive health appeal. Two 2 (inoculation) × 2 (freedom-threatening language) experiments were conducted. The first (N = 181) used elaborated inoculation designed to enhance the threat of impending reactance to a message advocating for responsible alcohol consumption.

Inoculating against reactance to persuasive health messages.

This investigation examined the possibility of decreasing psychological reactance to health campaigns through the use of inoculation messages. It was hypothesized that an inoculation message, which forewarned of the potential of subsequent reactance, would decrease participants' likelihood of reacting negatively to a freedom-threatening message aimed to reduce excessive alcohol consumption. Participants (N = 275) who were inoculated against potential reactance felt less threatened and experienced less reactance compared to those who did not read an inoculation message.

A communication competence approach to examining health care social support, stress, and job burnout.

Drawing upon Kreps's (1988) Relational Health Communication Competence Model (RHCCM), this study examined the effect of perceived communication competence on perceived stress and subsequently perceived job burnout. In addition, the role of social support satisfaction as a potential mediator between perceived communication competence and perceived stress was explored. The extended RHCCM was proposed and tested in a survey of 221 health care workers from three Veterans Administration hospitals in the United States.