Threat

This chapter turns to a, if not the , foundation for inoculation theory: threat. It distinguishes threat, refutational preemption, and explicit forewarnings, offering clear distinctions between message properties and theoretical processes. This chapter defines what threat is and is not, both conceptually and from a measurement standpoint, while explicating the relationship among threat, motivation, and counterarguing. Because threat is such a critical feature of inoculation theory, because it was largely ignored in past inoculation research (and even some contemporary inoculation research), and because different definitions and conceptualizations are used to represent threat across inoculation research, it is important to take a closer look at threat, detailing what it is, how it can be triggered, how and when it functions, and how it is measured in order to better study, apply, and theorize inoculation theory.