Terror management theory TMT Solomon, Greenberg,

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Terror management theory (TMT Solomon
Greenberg Pyszczynski 1991)

• Human beings are explicitly aware of the
  inevitability of death
• Death can occur at any time
• Death creates the potential for overwhelming
  terror
• This terror is reduced by two psychological
  phenomena Cultural Worldviews and Self-Esteem

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Cultural worldview Self-esteem

• Cultural worldview
• Humanly constructed beliefs about the nature of
  reality shared by individuals in a group
• Provides a conception of the universe
• Imbues the world with order meaning and
  permanence.

• Sets standards of valued behavior
• Minimizes death anxiety by promises of
  immortality (symbolic and/or literal) to those
  who live up to these standards

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Cultural worldview Self-esteem

• Self-esteem the perception that one is a person
  of value in a world of meaning
• Obtained if standards of valued behavior are
  satisfied

• Self-esteem buffers death anxiety by making you
  feel like a person of value within your cultural
  worldview. You feel a part of something bigger
  than yourself something that will last long
  after you are gone.

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Overview of TMT research

• SUPPORT FOR TMT HAS BEEN OBTAINED IN OVER 250
  PUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS BY INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS
  IN 9 COUNTRIES BASED ON TWO BASIC HYPOTHESES

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THE SELF-ESTEEM HYPOTHESIS

• IF SELF-ESTEEM SERVES AN ANXIETY BUFFERING
  FUNCTION
• Then raising self-esteem should reduce anxiety
  in response to stressful situations
• Studies have shown that dispositionally high or
  momentarily elevated self-esteem reduces
  self-reported anxiety defensive distortions and
  physiological arousal in response to stressful
  situations

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The mortality salience (MS)
hypothesis

• If worldview and self-esteem provide protection
  from the potential for death-related anxiety
• Then reminders of death should intensify efforts
  to uphold worldview and self-esteem.

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Mortality Salience Paradigm

• Mortality salience manipulation typically
  consists of two open-ended questions pertaining
  to death Describe the feelings that the thought
  of your own death arouses in you and (b)
  Describe what you think will happen to you as you
  physically die and once you are dead.
• Control Parallel questions about unpleasant but
  non-lethal events
• Mortality salience also engendered by fear of
  death scales videos of gory automobile
  accidents standing in front of funeral parlors
  and subliminal death primes have obtained similar
  results
• Mortality salience effects appear to be unique to
  concerns about death control conditions asking
  people to ponder anxiety-provoking but non-lethal
  things like dental pain exams social exclusion
  paralysis do not produce these effects.

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Mortality Salience Effects 1

• Rosenblatt et al. (1989) published the first
  study of the effects of mortality salience on
  social attitudes.
• Hypotheses
• If Moral Values represent Cultural
  Worldviews
• And prostitution is a violation of moral
  values
• Then Under the mortality salience paradigm
  Judges should be more punitive as a way to
  bolster their Worldview Defense Mechanism

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Mortality Salience Effects 1

• Twenty-two municipal court judges from Tucson
  Arizona completed a series of personality
  questionnaires
• Half were randomly assigned to the MS condition
  and answered two open-ended questions about death
• The judges were then given a hypothetical case in
  which they were asked to set bond for accused
  prostitutes.

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Mortality Salience Effects 1

• Those judges in the mortality salience group set
  bond at an average of 455
• Those judges in the control group set bond at an
  average of 50
• The judges who had been reminded of their death
  were much harsher in their punishment of a person
  who had violated rules of social worldview than
  were judges for whom death had not been made
  salient.

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• One very common source of differences between
  people that has been recurrently linked to
  prejudice conflict and hostility is that of
  religious belief and affiliation. Throughout
  history armed conflicts ranging from minor
  skirmishes to full-scale wars have been waged
  between the proponents of various religious
  conceptions of reality. (Greenberg et al 1990)

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to
  those who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural
  Worldview (Greenberg et al 1990)
• TMT Enthusiasm for conflicts among those who
  actually end up doing the killing and the dying
  is fueled by the threat implied to each groups
  cultural anxiety-buffer by the existence of the
  other group.
• The mere existence of others with similar beliefs
  validates ones faith in ones cultural worldview
• The mere existence of others with different
  beliefs threatens that faith.

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Hypotheses
• Mortality salience will increase liking for a
  member of ones own religious group (Christians)
• Mortality salience will decrease liking for a
  member of a religious out-group (Jews)

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• To test these hypotheses
• Twenty-six female and 20 male Christian
  introductory psychology students
• 1- Filled out some personality questionnaires
• 2- Were given personality information supplied by
  two other subjects that they would use to
  evaluate those subjects (a Christian and a Jew)

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Independent Variables
• Demographic information religious affiliations
• Who am I questionnaire
• JanisField self-esteem inventory
• 10 social issue statements
• Participants randomly assigned to MS condition or
  no condition

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Experimenter returned with
• The two completed versions supposedly filled out
  by two other participants
• There were relatively similar responses on the
  background questionnaire and the Who Am I
  Questionnaire
• On the social issues questionnaire one version
  had politically liberal responses and one had
  relatively conservative responses. Different
  attitudes were presented so that the targets
  would seem to be real fairly different persons.

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Background questionnaireJew or Christian
• Who Am I QuestionnaireJew or Christian
• Social issues questionnaire of two supposed male
  subjectsLiberal or Conservative
• Two sets of initial impressions assessments and
  an envelopeto be filled out by participant
• Interpersonal Judgment Scale
• 20 traits5 fit negative Jewish Stereotypes

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Two sets of initial impressions assessments and
  an envelopeto be filled out by participant
• Interpersonal Judgment Scale
• 20 traits5 fit negative Jewish Stereotypes
• Subjects were instructed to evaluate the subjects
  and to fill out the first impression assessment
  as soon as they finished reading about the first
  subject
• subjects rated each target immediately after
  reading the description of that person.

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Mortality Salience Effects 2

• Results
• Trait Ratings
• In Mortality Salience condition--Christian was
  rated significantly more positively than the Jew
• In Mortality Salience condition--Jew rated
  significantly more negatively than in control
  condition

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MS Defense Mechanisms

• Mortality Salience has been demonstrated to
  increase
• affiliation with sports teams
• a desire for conspicuous consumption
• charitable donations
• alleviation of depressive and anxiety disorders
• close relationships
• sexual relationships
• body image
• voting preferences

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Anti-Semitism Studies

• Materials
• Instruction page Bogus Pipeline or Prejudice
  obvious manipulation
• Mortality Salience or Exam Salience Questions
• Anti-Semitism Scale
• Support for Israel Scale
• Support for Israel and Palestinian Scales
• Feeling Thermometer Jew
• Demographics

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Anti-Semitism Studies

• Results
• Anti-Semitism Scale
• Under Mortality Salience and Bogus Pipeline
  participants report more Anti-Semitic Sentiment
• Support for Israel Scale
• Under Mortality Salience and Bogus Pipeline
  participants report less Sentiment in support of
  Israel
• Sig. Correlation between the two

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Todays Map Study

• Based on the Sig. Correlation found between the
  Anti-Semitism and the Support for Israel Scale we
  Hypothesized
• 1- Anti-Zionism is the New Anti-Semitism
• 2- One holding Anti-Semitic/Zionistic views will
  view the country of Israel looming larger that it
  is in actuality
• 3- Under Mortality Salience people will estimate
  Israel to be larger than under Exam Salience
• 4- This Effect will not be found for any other
  country

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Todays Map Study

• Materials
• Instruction page Bogus Pipeline
• Mortality Salience or Exam Salience Induction
• Mood Scale
• Individual country and population assessment
• Feeling Thermometer
• Anti-Semitism/Zionism Opinion Poll
• News Media Questionnaire
• Demographics