Defending Democracy: Inoculation’s Efficacy in Protecting First Amendment Attitudes

ABSTRACT

Although it may be tempting to assume that people’s attitudes toward the First Amendment are resolute, extant research and the findings of this investigation suggest the opposite: that Americans’ First Amendment attitudes are quite susceptible to persuasion. This investigation applied inoculation theory as an avenue through which attitudes toward the First Amendment could be strengthened and protected against counter-attitudinal persuasive attacks. The results of this three-phase experiment show that inoculation-based strategies are capable of both strengthening and protecting First Amendment attitudes against pressures to support narrowing the scope of the First Amendment. In addition, inoculation proved to be a successful strategy in protecting the certainty (or conviction) with which First Amendment attitudes are held.

KEYWORDS:

• Social influence
• resistance strategy
• civil liberties
• free speech
• right to assemble

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This manuscript is a part of a larger study that necessitated oversampling in the inoculation condition, which is the reason for the non-equivalent sample sizes for the control and inoculation conditions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kimberly A. Parker

Kimberly A. Parker is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Media, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. She studies strategic communication, social marketing and social influence (persuasion and resistance).

Sarah Geegan

Sarah Geegan is a Doctoral Student and Instructor in Public Relations and Strategic Communication in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on persuasion and social influence.

Bobi Ivanov

Bobi Ivanov is a Professor in the Department of Integrated Strategic Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. He studies social influence (persuasion and resistance) and message design, processing, and retention. His theoretical work focuses on the study of inoculation theory, images, and attitudes and their composition, hierarchical structure, and function as applied in various contexts including commercial, health, intercultural, instructional/educational, interpersonal, political, and risk/crisis management.

Amanda Slone

Amanda Slone is a Doctoral Candidate in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. Her researcher interests include organizational and instructional communication, with an emphasis on training and development. She uses both qualitative and quantitative methods in her work, as well as some social network analysis techniques.

Will Silberman

Will Silberman is a Doctoral Student in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. His research interests include social media use and abuse, privacy, and social cognition.

Joe Martin

Joe Martin is a Doctoral Student and Faculty Lecturer in Instructional Communication and Research in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. His research interests include instructional communication, instructional technology, and the biology of human communication.

Erin Hester

Erin Hester is a Doctoral Student and Instructor in Strategic Communication in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on persuasive message design and social change.

Sean Goatley-Soan

Sean Goatley-Soan is a Doctoral Student in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky. His research focuses on social influence, and how language variation (e.g., accent/dialect) influences intergroup, organizational, and intercultural communication.

August Anderson

August Anderson is an Account Supervisor at BizCom Associates. She manages media efforts for multiple client accounts, writes and edits press releases, memos, blogs, status reports on behalf of clients, and conducts new business and current client research.

Taban Herrington

Taban Herrington is the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) Administrative Specialist. She organizes exercises and trainings for CSEPP events.

Seth Riker

Seth Riker is a Master of Arts Student in the Graduate Program in Communication, College of Communication and Information. He also serves as the Marketing and Communications Manager for the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, University of Kentucky. He manages college-wide communications outlets, analyzes reach and effectiveness of college campaigns and outlets, coordinates and implements college-wide recruitment marketing campaigns, and engages in effective sustainable communications strategies.