The ramifications of terror management theory on politics decisions
Summary
The terror management theory suggests that feelings of panic and fear are triggered by thoughts of death (mortality salience) which may impact our thoughts, decisions and activities. The dread/anxiety caused sets off off defence mechanisms which cause individuals to feel nearer to their values and what they regard as a good and valued way of living (ethnic worldview). The analysis will be looking at the way the manipulation of mortality salience influences the ratings of two world market leaders, predicting that they will rate highest the earth leader which recognizes the most with the ethnic worldview. The members will be English College or university students and the design of the study is an self-employed procedures design. The individuals will be asked to complete an identification range on being British isles, a phrase search where the experimental condition will contain mortality salience and the control condition will not, they will also be asked to complete small maths calculations and they will be finally asked to rate two world leaders (England's primary minister Gordon Dark brown and Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev) on a level indicating how firmly they experience the statements about each world head. The honest issues in the experiment are confidentiality, enlightened consent, anonymity, mortality salience and the utilization of studies. These issues will be dealt with by increasing presumed consent, the right to withdraw from the test anytime and debriefing each participant by the end to ensure these are comfortable and content with the info they provided. Mortality salience will be stored as minimal as you possibly can via by using a word search and a distracter task which is used later to ensure that only a small amount harm or no harm by any means is triggered to the members.
Introduction
Terror management theory originated by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski and is dependant on loss of life. Humans are unique as they are the one living types that are aware of their inevitable loss of life and this triggers fear (terror) which would make having on with daily duties impossible. Therefore, it is suggested that when a person is reminded of loss of life (mortality salience) they instantly use two defence mechanisms to safeguard themselves and get rid of these thoughts of death. The first defence system is when an individual has their own personal views and benchmarks on how they ought to live their life and for that reason, individuals strive to meet those specifications to feel as respected members of world (ethnic worldview). Culture also provides individuals with symbolic immortality such as, being part of family members and ethnic teams, because even after their mortality these communities will remain and individuals it's still remembered as parts of them. The next defence system is self-esteem which reduces nervousness when self-esteem is high and this is achieved by individuals thinking and maintaining that they surpass the standards that are parts of their social worldview. When folks are successful this causes high self-esteem which reduces the panic caused by threats.
Furthermore, when others have the same cultural worldview as ours (in groupers) it shows that our view is right and we need this confirmation from others to keep believing in our cultural worldviews. However, defence mechanisms are brought on off whenever there are risks against one's world view and values. The very thought of death and other people with different ethnical worldviews (out groupers) could test our beliefs giving us with thoughts of anxiety which makes individuals want to surpass their social worldviews even more.
Many studies have tested the mortality salience hypothesis such as Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski and Lyon (1989) who used twenty two judges in a study where 50 % of the judges were reminded of their own death (mortality salience), before preparing bail to a prostitute and the spouse were not. The judges who had been reminded of the death set bail at $450 and judges who were not reminded with their death placed bail at $50. This demonstrates the data of death triggers individuals to maintain their ethnic worldviews which is reflected onto the quantity of bail established as generally prostitution would be seen as wrong in a lot of people social worldview.
The terror management theory also assumes that whenever people are reminded of loss of life this affects their decisions towards certain important issues such as politics. Studies show that whenever mortality is salient many individuals support people who have the same politics views as their selves and action hostile and adversely towards people with different politics views. For instance, Landau et al. (2004) found that when individuals were reminded of the 9/11 episodes they appeared to be more supportive of Chief executive Bush whereas, in charge conditions not even half recognized his decisions. This shows us that the very thought of fatality can have results on our political decisions and views which knowledge of dread seems to be employed by politicians to receive more support from the general public. Other studies have also showed that fatality increases nationalism. In a single analysis on American participants, when they were reminded of loss of life these were more positive towards people who thought positively of America and were more negative towards people who thought negatively of America (Greenberg et al. , 1990). Different countries also found similar results such as in Germany when Germans were reminded of fatality they sat closer to other Germans and sat further from Turks (Ochsman and Mathay, 1994).
These studies show us that whenever individuals are fearful of their mortality they feel nearer to their cultural worldviews than previously as a means of protecting themselves. This triggers attitudes and beliefs to strengthen which in turn causes individuals to see any other perception as incorrect and negative. This might cause extreme behaviour such as terrorist attacks, hate offences and violence. Due to many of these, individuals would feel closer to a president who knows precisely what they are really doing, are devoted and sending out a strong message.
Rationale (purpose) and seeks of analysis: The purpose of the study is showing that thoughts of loss of life have an impact on our lives and the decisions we make, including decisions about politics. The study will be screening to observe how British members will behave towards their very own world leader prime minister Gordon Brown and another world head, Dmitry Medvedev Russia's chief executive. Participants should prefer Gordon Brown as opposed to the other world innovator when reminded of death as he's closer to their ethnic worldview.
Research questions: When mortality menace is salient will individuals have a stronger frame of mind towards their beliefs and their ethnic worldview?
Hypotheses: Individuals political orientation will be closer to their social worldview when mortality risk is salient.
Method:
How hypotheses addresses aims of analysis: The purpose of the study is to show that thoughts of fatality affect our political decisions as well as standard decisions and the hypotheses relates to this as it is suggesting that folks will feel closer to the world innovator which identifies with the cultural worldview the most.
Operationalised factors: 1) Mortality salience is manipulated by the term searches, ones neutral; one has death related words and 2) asked to rate world market leaders on a scale about if they are good/gratifying world market leaders.
Design: The participants will be randomly assigned and the look used will be an unbiased sample design, as different members will be used for the two different conditions. The 3rd party variables are the manipulation of the mortality salience (control condition and experimental condition) and both different world leaders. The dependent variable is the results from the ranking scales of the two different world leaders.
Participants: British school students, male and feminine. Around 50 members will be used.
Materials: Identification size, two word searches, small maths computations and profiles of both world leaders like the rating size.
Procedure: To begin with individuals will be sitting and the very first thing they will fill out is their gender, get older and an identification scale about how British and near to their culture they feel. They can do a word search, however, you will see two conditions in the experiment one will be the controlled condition where members will receive a normal word search and can not involve mortality salience, whereas, the experimental condition calls for mortality salience. After the word searches members will work out small maths computations, they will receive information of two world leaders one is Gordon Brown England's excellent minister and the other is Dmitry Medvedev Russia's chief executive. To be able to eliminate the effect of order effects I'll have some information with Gordon Dark brown presented first than Dmitry Medvedev and vice versa. Participants must rate the assertions of the world market leaders on a range indicating how highly they experience each one.
Ethical issues: The moral issues in the test are confidentiality, knowledgeable consent, anonymity, mortality salience and the use of findings. These issues will be dealt with by getting presumed consent, the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time and debriefing each participant at the end to ensure they can be comfortable and content with the information they provided. Mortality salience will be held as minimal as is feasible via utilizing a phrase search and a distracter activity will be utilized soon after to ensure that as little harm or no damage whatsoever is caused to the members.
Analysis of results: The results will be analysed with a 2 by 2 combined factor Anova. The IV's are mortality salience (experimental condition and controlled condition) and the earth leaders (Gordon Dark brown and Dmitry Medvedev).
Schedule for completion of task: Get all data by December
Research of data in the Christmas break
Article of results and record January/Febuary till March
