Inoculation and Culture

In the past six decades, scholars have produced many novel and exciting extensions of McGuire's theory of inoculation. However, foundational research on inoculation was conducted with samples mostly from the United States, raising concerns about whether the propositions of inoculation research replicate in other cultural contexts. This chapter explores cultural validations of inoculation effects examined across various WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and non-WEIRD countries. Although many studies produced findings in line with the core theorizing on inoculation, others (albeit few) have revealed divergent effects, failing to find support for inoculation's predictions. These conflicting results highlight the need for more substantive investigations into the explanatory mechanisms and potential moderators to account for these differences. To this end, this chapter offers several cultural-context variables—thinking styles, individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, high/low context, tightness/looseness, and moral foundations—as future research directions on culture and inoculation.