It was fear of death wot won it for George Bush in last year's presidential election, if a series of psychological experiments are to be believed. [...] The four experiments were conducted before the presidential election and originally designed to test terror management theory (TMT), rather than as political analysis. TMT posits that human awareness of mortality makes it our core terror; we use culture in general, and leaders in particular, to create a protective shield against fears arising from the inevitability of this demise.
In the first experiment, reminders of death were provided to a sample of subjects by asking them to respond to questions about death and dying. Members of a control sample were given questions about watching TV. Both samples were then asked to read a highly favourable opinion of the measures taken by Bush after 9/11 and to say how much they endorsed his actions. Those previously reminded of their death were significantly more likely to endorse his policies. The second experiment established that, on its own, being reminded of 9/11 increased subjects' awareness of their own mortality. The third showed that reminders of 9/11 and reminders of mortality, per se, were equally effective in generating support for Bush, whether the subjects were leftwing or conservative.
Post a Comment