Inoculation Theory

Inoculation Theory is a model for building one's resistance to others' persuasions against their beliefs. In other words, you teach those with your beliefs a weak form of a counter-argument so that whenever the opposition tries to persuade them with a stronger counter-argument, they are 'immune'.

It's difficult to explain personally, so Below I'll attach an excerpt that helped me easily understand the concept:

+"The inoculation theory draws comparison with the concept of vaccination. In a normal vaccination, a weakened form of the virus is injected into an individual in order to build resistance to the disease. A similar procedure is used to ‘inoculate’ an individual from attacks on his belief."
+"According to the theory, a weakened or smaller dose of a contrary argument called the inoculation message is given to the people. These individuals who have been exposed to the weaker argument develop a defense system that helps them to retain their beliefs and not change their attitudes when they are confronted with a stronger form of the argument."

https://www.communicationtheory.org/inoculation-theory/

(Side Note: Inoculation Theory is a Subsidiary of Communication Theory)

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