Inoculation messages as a preemptive financial crisis communication strategy with inexperienced investors

Abstract

This study focuses on the problem of collapsed ‘stay in the market’ (SIM) beliefs during financial crises. More specifically, the goal of this investigation was to ascertain whether or not inoculation messages are a viable preemptive crisis communication strategy to protect the SIM beliefs of inexperienced investors amidst a major stock market downturn. Inoculation messages were compared to both supportive messages and no-message controls to determine their effectiveness in protecting SIM beliefs. Additionally, the impact of inoculation messages on beliefs in the absence of a crisis and the impact of crisis message modality (i.e. video versus print) on inoculation-generated resistance were explored. A between-subjects factorial design (3 × 2 plus one additional condition) was designed to explore three hypotheses and two research questions. Results indicate that inoculation messages can serve as a viable preemptive financial crisis communication strategy and that inoculation messages did not harm SIM beliefs in the absence of a crisis.