A psychological framework derived in the 1960s that aims to induce pre-emptive resistance against unwanted persuasion attempts. Papageorgis and McGuire (1961) explain: “A previous study … showed that strong initial beliefs are more effectively immunized against persuasion by pre-exposing them to counterarguments … The present study tested the hypothesis that pre-exposure to refutations of some counterarguments against the belief would have a generalized immunization effect, making the beliefs more resistant to strong doses not only of the specific counter arguments … but also of alternative arguments against the given belief … As expected, the beliefs proved highly vulnerable to the strong counterarguments when there was no prior immunization. Immunization had a direct strengthening effect on the beliefs and also substantially reduced the effect of the subsequent strong counterarguments.”
Citations: Papageorgis, D., & McGuire, W. J. (1961). The generality of immunity to persuasion produced by pre-exposure to weakened counterarguments. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62(3), 475–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048430
Roozenbeek, J., van der Linden, S., & Nygren, T. (2020). Prebunking interventions based on the psychological theory of “inoculation” can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures.