Mark Dechesne

Literal and symbolic immortality: The effect of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem striving in response to mortality salience

Three studies investigated the effect of encouraging participants to believe in an afterlife on the relationship between mortality salience and self-esteem striving. Participants were exposed to essays arguing either in favor of or against the existence of an afterlife, and reminded about death or a control topic. Mortality salience led to increased accuracy ratings of a positive personality description (Studies 1 and 2) and increased striving for and defense of values (Study 3) among participants who read the essay arguing against an afterlife, but not among participants who read the essay in favor of it. The implications for the terror management analysis of self-esteem, the appeal of immortality beliefs, and the interplay between self-esteem striving and spiritual pursuits are discussed.

Terror management and the vicissitudes of sports fan affiliation: The effects of mortality salience on optimism and fan identification

The present research examined the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that identifications with sports teams shield against the potential consequences of awareness of death. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Dutch participants who were reminded of their death expressed greater optimism about the results of the national soccer team compared to a control condition. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated this finding with American participants and college sports teams. In addition, Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that success of a team is a prerequisite for sports fan affiliation to function as a buffer against death concerns. Before the college football season began, participants who were reminded about death expressed greater relative preference for a more salient, but less successful college football team over a national college champion basketball team compared to control participants. However, after the football team lost its first game of the season, participants who were reminded about death indicated greater relative preference for the successful basketball team. Results are discussed with regard to the psychological function of social identifications.

Derogation and distancing as terror management strategies: the moderating role of need for closure and permeability of group boundaries.

Previous research has revealed that when individuals are confronted with criticism of a personally relevant group, mortality salience can lead to either derogation of the source of criticism or distancing from the group. In this article, the authors investigated closure as a potential moderator of these reactions. In Study 1, mortality salience led to greater derogation of a critic of a relevant group among high-need-for-closure participants but led to distancing from the group among low need-for-closure participants. Study 2 showed that when a relevant group was criticized, mortality salience led to greater derogation among participants who were led to believe that the boundaries of that group were impermeable but led to greater distancing among participants who were made aware of the permeable nature of the group boundaries. These findings demonstrate that closure of group membership moderates reactions to criticism of a personally relevant group after mortality salience.

Three decades of lay epistemics: The why, how, and who of knowledge formation

A conceptual integration and review are presented of three separate research programmes informed by the theory of lay epistemics (Kruglanski, 1989). They respectively address the “why”, “how”, and “who” questions about human knowledge formation. The “why” question is treated in work on the need for cognitive closure that propels epistemic behaviour and affects individual, interpersonal, and group phenomena. The “how” question is addressed in work on the unimodel (Kruglanski, Pierro, Mannetti, Erb, & Chun, 2007) depicting the process of drawing conclusions from the “information given”. The “who” question is addressed in work on “epistemic authority” highlighting the centrality of source effects (including oneself as a source) in human epistemic behaviour. These separate research paradigms explore facets of epistemic behaviour that jointly produce human knowledge, of essential significance to peoples’ individual and social functioning.

Smearing the Opposition: Implicit and Explicit Stigmatization of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates and the Current U.S. President

Four studies investigated whether political allegiance and salience of outgroup membership contribute to the phenomenon of acceptance of false, stigmatizing information (smears) about political candidates. Studies 1-3 were conducted in the month prior to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election and together demonstrated that pre-standing opposition to John McCain or Barack Obama, as well as the situational salience of differentiating social categories (i.e., for Obama, race; for McCain, age), contributed to the implicit activation and explicit endorsement of smearing labels (i.e., Obama is Muslim; McCain is senile). The influence of salient differentiating categories on smear acceptance was particularly pronounced among politically undecided individuals. Study 4 clarified that social category differences heighten smear acceptance, even if the salient category is semantically unrelated to the smearing label, showing that, approximately 1 year after the election, the salience of race amplified belief that Obama is a socialist among undecided people and McCain supporters. Taken together, these findings suggest that, at both implicit and explicit cognitive levels, social category differences and political allegiance contribute to acceptance of smears against political candidates.

Need for closure and the social response to terrorism

It has been long contended that terrorism is a form of psychological warfare with the aim of advancing political objectives through the spreading of fear. The present set of five studies explored the relation between need for closure and the social response to terrorism. We found support for the notion that reminders of terrorist attacks elevate the need for closure and that the need for closure may enhance ingroup identification; interdependence with others; outgroup derogation; and support for tough and decisive counterterrorism policies and for leaders likely to carry out such policies. The implications of this research for the claims of terrorist ideologues regarding the efficacy of terrorism are discussed.

Are Associative and Propositional Processes Qualitatively Distinct? Comment on Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006).

The authors comment on B. Gawronski and G. V. Bodenhausens (2006) associative-propositional evaluation model of implicit and explicit attitudes by examining the claims that (a) truth value is attached to propositions but not to associations; (b) pattern activation is qualitatively different from syllogistic structure of arguments; and (c) Pavlovian conditioning may be propositional, whereas evaluative conditioning is not. They conclude that despite surface dissimilarities between implicit and explicit attitudes both may be mediated by the same underlying process.

The Psychological Importance of Youth Culture A Terror Management Approach

In the literature, youth culture has been addressed in two distinct ways: the aesthetic approach, which has led to criticism of youth culture, and the empirical approach, in which the functions and benefits of youth culture have been stressed. In this article, Terror Management Theory (TMT) is used to provide a functional approach to youth culture. According to TMT, culture is conceived of as a buffer against the awareness of death. To assess the anxiety-buffering function of youth culture, an experiment was conducted in which awareness of death (mortality salience) was manipulated. In the experimental condition, results showed more extreme evaluations of pro-youth and anti-youth essays and their authors, suggesting that awareness of death increases allegiance to youth culture. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of the nature of youth culture and its relation to larger society.

International Collaboration under Threat: A Field Study in Kabul

This report examines Dutch military personnels attitudes toward international cooperation, while these attitudes were expressed under threatening (during the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan) or nonthreatening circumstances (in Europe). Findings indicate that concerns about death were significantly more present in Afghanistan relative to Europe, and in Afghanistan, concerns about death were found to be negatively correlated with willingness to collaborate internationally. These findings provide support for terror management processes in vivo, and have a number of important implications for international policy.

Detecting child abuse based on parental characteristics: Does The Hague Protocol cause parents to avoid the Emergency Department?

OBJECTIVES The Hague Protocol is used by professionals at the adult Emergency Departments (ED) in The Netherlands to detect child abuse based on three parental characteristics: (1) domestic violence, (2) substance abuse or (3) suicide attempt or self-harm. After detection, a referral is made to the Reporting Center for Child Abuse and Neglect (RCCAN). This study investigates whether implementing this Protocol will lead parents to avoid medical care. METHOD We compared the number of patients (for whom the Protocol applied) who attended the ED prior to implementation with those attending after implementation. We conducted telephone interviews (n = 14) with parents whose children were referred to the RCCAN to investigate their experience with the procedure. RESULTS We found no decline in the number of patients, included in the Protocol, visiting the ED during the 4 year implementation period (2008-2011). Most parents (n = 10 of the 14 interviewed) were positive and stated that they would, if necessary, re-attend the ED with the same complaints in the future. CONCLUSION ED nurses and doctors referring children based on parental characteristics do not have to fear losing these families as patients.