Inoculation-A Promising Proactive Approach in Crisis Communication

Proactive strategies such as image promotion have received much attention in crisis communication research. The image building approach functions similarly to the supportive treatments in inoculation, which provide positive arguments that reinforce public's original attitudes toward the organization in order to prevent attitude slippage when encountering attacks. If the supportive treatment in inoculation is comparable to the proactive image promotion strategy in crisis communication, it indirectly suggests the great potential for inoculation as an alternative proactive approach. However, inoculation has never been applied to the crisis communication context before. This study attempts to expand the scope of proactive crisis communication strategies by examining whether inoculation can be effective in conferring resistance to persuasive influence in a crisis scenario. The analysis should shed light on widening our approach to attitude bolstering given negative circumstances, and it should have great applications for public relations practitioners in terms of designing appropriate proactive crisis communication strategies.