arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

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

Courtney D. Boman

Journal of Public Relations Research2023https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726x.2023.2195184article
ABDC B
Weight
0.73

What the paper says

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.

15 citations

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726x.2023.2195184

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{courtney2023,
  title        = {{Protecting Against Disinformation: Using Inoculation to Cultivate Reactance Towards Astroturf Attacks}},
  author       = {Courtney D. Boman},
  journal      = {Journal of Public Relations Research},
  year         = {2023},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726x.2023.2195184},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

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

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.73

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.96 × 0.4 = 0.38
M · momentum0.80 × 0.15 = 0.12
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.