Resisting Persuasion: Building Defences against Competitors' Persuasive Attacks in the Context of War-Gaming Methodology

In persuasion theory and research, the issue of how to resist persuasion has also been evaluated. The classic research on this topic is inoculation, which describes the process of introducing the opposition's persuasive arguments and providing counter-arguments to these attacks, thus further strengthening defences so that there is resistance to subsequent persuasion attempts by the opposition. Qualitative war-gaming methodology is used in a number of situations to develop persuasive messages and resistance against persuasion attempts by the opposition. Applications of findings from persuasion resistance research to the war-gaming methodology are explored.