The impact of different procedures to arouse mortality awareness on various worldview dimensions

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out in order to explore two aspects of the terror management theory that have received little attention until now. The first objective was to see whether the different procedures to arouse mortality awareness have the same effects in certain dimensions included within the general construct of ‘worldviews’ (namely, commitment to life‐after‐death beliefs, Eurocentrism and xenophobia, European identity and the importance attached to the family and offspring in personal growth). The second objective was to study the role played by three mediators (emotions, death‐thoughts accessibility and self‐esteem) in the effects of mortality awareness on worldviews. The results revealed that different death reminders influenced different worldview dimensions and that emotions played a major role in the process.

Between Conspiracy Beliefs, Ingroup Bias, and System Justification: How People Use Defense Strategies to Cope With the Threat of COVID-19

“…Even though the studies of the present research cannot rule out this possibility, results are consistent with past studies showing that various threats increase the use of different distal defense strategies via BIS-related emotions such as anxiety. One experimental setup, for instance, found that the effect of different types of mortality salience on worldview defense was mediated by negative affect ( Echebarria Echabe and Perez, 2016 ). Additionally, Webber et al (2015) demonstrated the pivotal role of emotions in worldview defense in their placebo study: When participants had the chance to attribute their anxiety to something other than threat, they showed less worldview defense afterward – indicating the importance of BIS-related variables in threat processing.…”

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“…Например, ряд исследований показал, что после напоминания о смерти евроамериканцы выражают более негативное отношение к афроамериканцам (Bradley et al, 2012); студенты американских университетов -к евреям (Cohen et al, 2009); шотландцы -к англичанам (Castano, 2004); немцы -к туркам (Pyszczynski et al, 2003); итальянцы -к немцам (Castano et al, 2002); жители европейских стран -к арабам и мигрантам (Das et al, 2009;Echebarria-Echabe, 2013;Echebarria-Echabe, Perez, 2016;Pan et al, 2017); арабы -к европейцам (Das et al, 2009); нигерийские студенты -к представителям народа хауса (Ezeh et al, 2017).…”

“…Первый показатель -общие шкалы предрассудков, затрагивающие эмоциональный и когнитивный аспекты отношения (Cohen et al, 2009;Das et al, 2009;Echebarria-Echabe, 2013;Echebarria-Echabe, Perez, 2016;Pan et al, 2017). Второй показатель -наборы черт для измерения стереотипных представлений об аутгруппе (Castano et al, 2002;Castano, 2004;Pyszczynski et al, 2003).…”

Effects of Terrorism Threat on Economic Preferences: The Role of Personality

“…Most popular prime involves asking participants to write down what they think happens when they die, and to jot down emotions aroused by thoughts of their own death. Some primes used death-related pictures; there have also been successful primes using terrorism-related stimuli (Echebarria Echabe & Perez, 2015). The goal of this study was to prime Terrorism as it is naturally encountered through the media; priming Mortality in the same format would enable comparisons between combination of MS and uncertainty in case of Terrorism.…”