1

How can psychologists help to protect people from being persuaded by

online misinformation? Base your answer on theory and research on persuasion,

including attitude inoculation.

Anna Halašová

School of Psychology, University of Kent

PSYC3020

Exam Number: 1773230

Word Count: 1485 words

 2

Introduction

In an era that has been largely dominated by the internet and social media, the rising issue of

online misinformation poses a threat to the public's understanding and decision-making.

Social psychologists play a crucial part in helping individuals from believing persuasive

tactics used by media channels, digital platforms, and so-called professionals by conducting

research, testing theories that have been recognized since the 20th century. Many theories

include attitude inoculation, a theory pioneered by social psychologist William McGuire

(McGuire, 1961), selective exposure, which is a theory that is used to filter out information

that is opposing the individuals’ views, or hostile media bias where people view media as

untrustworthy (Duck et al., 1998). This essay will be focusing on the research made by social

psychologists and evaluating their research and ultimately their findings. This will be done in

order to determine whether the theories used in their research can be used by psychologists as

useful techniques against persuasion and online misinformation.

Selective Exposure

The phenomenon of selective exposure is a popular theory amongst many social

psychologists as it is one of the most used methods to avoid persuasion as proven by previous

research (Albarracín & Karan, 2022). Selective exposure in practice looks like avoidance of

information that is not deemed important by the individual. In a study by Brannon et al.,

(2007) it was hypothesised that a person with stronger attitudes engage in more selective

exposure than a person with weaker attitudes. The researchers have used two experiments to

test this hypothesis. The procedure consisted of a pre-test session where participants

completed a questionnaire assessing attitude strength and position, and a main experimental

session where the main selective exposure task took place (experiment A was to read article

titles that were opposing each other, and experiment B was to read titles with accompanying
 3

abstracts). The measures that were looked at, were attitude position and strength (both gained

from the pre-test session), and selective exposure gained from the main session. The results

suggest that the attitude strength can in fact be associated with greater engagement in

selective exposure, on the other hand those who have reported to have weaker attitudes were

more likely to explore opposing arguments when reading the articles.

The practical applications of selective exposure can be used in everyday lives to prevent

exposure to online misinformation. Due to the age of the internet, we are able to filter through

on our phones what we would like to view and what we would not. This helps people to

avoid being persuaded by online misinformation by selectively exposing themselves to online

information that is only relevant to the individual (Everland, 2003). However, there are

limitations to this theory that are purely dependent on the individual characteristics such as

confidence and attitude strength (Brannon et al., 2007). Selective exposure is one of the most

used theories against persuasion by misinformation and has proven to be highly effective

when the individual has established strong beliefs, attitudes, and self-confidence.

Hostile Media Bias

First mentioned by Vallone et al. (1985) the hostile media bias is a theory that believes that

people, especially those with stronger attitudes, are more likely to view online media as

biassed and therefore deem them untrustworthy. A study led by Lee et al. (2018) discovered

that when tweets were shared by the opposing political party, they were more likely to be

seen as biassed and not trustworthy and therefore people were less likely to be persuaded. As

such the study by Gearhart et al. (2022) aims to investigate how far online comments

determine the perception of individuals when it comes to media credibility.

The experimental study used a two variable (gun control or abortion), three group (2x3)

design (similar opinion group, opposite opinion group and a control group). The participants
 4

took part in pre-test measures to determine which attitude they held in these topics.

Therefore, a total of six conditions took place, in each there were Facebook articles that were

created by a professional journalist and an experienced photoshop professional and presented

as published by The Economist, which was found to be the least biassed according to media

users (Mitchell, 2014). The participants were asked to rank the article on different 7-point

scales to determine whether they believe the articles were valid or not, trustworthy etc. The

results indeed showed that comments under Facebook articles do in fact affect the perception

of bias and credibility of the post, especially those who were exposed to similar opinions.

As we can see from the study by Gearhart et al. (2022) hostile media bias may help

psychologists to protect individuals from persuasion by biassed information. However, there

are disadvantages that come with this technique. By only focusing on the opinions that are

deemed true by themselves, individuals are more prone to increase devotion to a particular

side of their choosing which can increase misinformation (Gunther et al., 2009). Therefore,

this can lead to further persuasion by online media and can become more harmful.

Attitude Inoculation

By firstly presenting people with multiple weaker arguments with opposing attitudes, it could

be believed that they would become accumulated and be able to withstand stronger

arguments with counter attitudinal beliefs in the future. This is an important theory that was

discovered by McGuire (1961, 1964). The experiment was presented to the participants as a

study of the relationship between reading and writing. Each participant took part in two, one-

hour experiments which were two days apart. The first experiment was designed to give the

participant belief-immunising treatments whilst the second experiment was designed to

counter argue and attack the previously established beliefs. The results of this study showed
 5

that most of the participants' initial beliefs were extreme and amounted to cultural truism

(McGuire & Papageorgis, 1961).

McGuire demonstrated that if a person who is holding the beliefs of cultural truisms (e.g.,

you should be washing your hair every day), and has not been inoculated, should be

presented with a counter argument (e.g., experts believe that you should wash your hair two

times a week), the person who has not been inoculated is more likely to be persuaded by that

piece of information than someone who has been inoculated (Sutton and Douglas, 2020,

p.73). McGuire and Papageorgis (1961) have both believed that the reason is because

participants who were previously inoculated have necessary information to counter argue

against the opposing argument.

One of the scenarios in which inoculation can be used are school settings, where adolescents

are being pressured by their peers to participate in deviant behaviours such as smoking or

drinking. A field study by Perry et al (1980) has followed high school students who were

tasked to inoculate junior high students against smoking by having them role play and

pretend that they are being persuaded into smoking. The children who have been inoculated

were about half as likely to smoke a cigarette than those who were not supporting the

findings of previous studies.

Inoculation can be used in governmental environments, schools, offices and more due to the

relative simplicity of this technique. However, there are some limitations to this theory as

people will sometimes believe what they want to believe especially when it comes to

conspiracy theories as people find comfort in explaining something difficult in a simpler way

(Banas & Miller, 2013). This proves that although inoculation can be useful for psychologists

to use, it heavily relies on the willingness and open-mindness of the participants. People who
 6

are affected by misinformation are happier due to the simplicity of their explanations as they

‘provide psychological comfort’ (Banas & Miller, 2013, p. 184).

Conclusion

The theories that are related to persuasion by online misinformation are all valuable theories

that can be used by psychologists. However, they all require more in-depth research in order

to see which theory works for what individual.

In the field study by Perry et al. (1980) into inoculation, the findings showed that children are

more likely to persuaded if they have not been previously inoculated, however they did not

consider environmental factors (i.e. whether the parents were smoker or non-smokers) which

could inevitably affect the findings of the study. In the study by Gearhart et al. (2022) they

have only looked at online misinformation distribution through one social media platform

(Facebook), they have not tested other social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat and

therefore the findings cannot be applied to those scenarios. Lastly the study by Brannon et al.

(2007) used an individual differences design which makes it hard to rule out a third-variable

effect which could compromise results of the impact of attitude strength on selective

exposure.

In conclusion theories such as hostile media bias, attitude inoculation and selective exposure

are effective tools that can be used by social psychologists to help individuals to improve

their perception when it comes to persuasive tactics, however there is still research that must

be done to further improve our understanding.

 7

References

‌Albarracín, D., & Karan, A. (2022). Resistance to Persuasion. Oxford Research Encyclopedia
of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.813

Banas, J. A., & Miller, G. (2013). Inducing resistance to conspiracy theory propaganda:
Testing inoculation and metainoculation strategies. Human Communication Research, 39(2),
184-207.

‌Brannon, L. A., Tagler, M. J., & Eagly, A. H. (2007). The moderating role of attitude strength
in selective exposure to information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(4), 611–
617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.05.001

Compton, J., van der Linden, S., Cook, J., & Basol, M. (2021). Inoculation theory in the
post‐truth era: Extant findings and new frontiers for contested science,
misinformation, and
conspiracy theories. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15(6).
https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12602

Dylko, I. B. (2015). How Technology Encourages Political Selective Exposure.

Communication Theory, 26(4), 389–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12089

Gearhart, S., Moe, A., & Zhang, B. (2020). Hostile media bias on social media: Testing the
effect of user comments on perceptions of news bias and credibility. Human Behavior and
Emerging Technologies, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.185

‌Gunther, A. C., Miller, N., & Liebhart, J. L. (2009). Assimilation and Contrast in a Test of
the Hostile Media Effect. Communication Research, 36(6), 747-764.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650209346804
 8

Lee, T. K., Kim, Y., & Coe, K. (2018). When Social Media Become Hostile Media: An
Experimental Examination of News Sharing, Partisanship, and Follower Count. Mass
Communication and Society, 21(4), 450–472.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2018.1429635

Mitchell, A. (2014, October 30). Which News Organization Is the Most trusted? The Answer
Is complicated. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/10/30/which-news-organization-is-the-most-
trusted-the-answer-is-complicated/

Perry, C. L., Killen, J., Slinkard, L. A., & McAlister, A. L. (1980). Peer teaching and
smoking prevention among junior high students. Adolescence, Vol. 15, pp. 277-281.

‌Sutton, R., & Douglas, K. (2020). Social psychology. (Second Edition). Red Globe Press. (p.
242 - 279)

(2022). Apa.org.
https://www.apa.org/topics/substance-use-abuse-addiction/smoking-
prevention#:~:text=McGuire%20coined%20the%20phrase%20attitude