Spreading Inoculation: Inoculation, Resistance to Influence, and Word-of-Mouth Communication

Although inoculation has established efficacy in conferring resistance to influence for those directly exposed to inoculation pretreatment messages, we argue that inoculation’s effects may extend beyond those directly exposed to others via word-of-mouth communication (WOMC) along social networks. Specifically, we argue that inoculation’s effects on attitude accessibility, involvement, and threat are particularly conducive to the spread of inoculation content, offering WOMC as a new inoculation modality.