HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Health Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1576772
Inoculation Theory Revisited: Reinterpretations, Extensions, and New Directions
Provisionally accepted
- Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Inoculation theory offers a unique perspective on how beliefs can be fortified against persuasive attacks. However, several aspects of the theory warrant further exploration and reinterpretation, particularly its analogies with immunology. The paper aims to broaden the theory's boundary conditions by delving into thought-provoking analogies between immunology and persuasion. The author redefines multiple key concepts within inoculation theory and addresses a range of existing issues associated with classic inoculation theory, including the distinction between passive and active defense and addressing "infected" people and "allergy" with therapeutic inoculation. The paper concludes by proposing future research directions that include exploring diverse, especially mRNA forms of "inoculation" and formulating a series of conceptual propositions.
Keywords: inoculation theory, immunological analogies, therapeutic inoculation, Extensions, New Directions
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guangchao Charles Feng, fffchao@gmail.com
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