Does Remembering Our Mortality Make Us Mean?
by Matt B. on August 28, 2011
This from the New York Times:
“In a study that began in 1989, a group of American social psychologists found that just briefly reminding people that they would die had a remarkable impact on their political and religious views.
“In their first experiment, the researchers recruited court judges from Tucson. Half the judges were reminded of their mortality (via an otherwise innocuous personality test) and half were not. They were then all asked to rule on a hypothetical case of prostitution similar to those they ruled on. The judges who had first been reminded of their mortality set a bond nine times higher than those who hadn’t (averaging $455 compared to $50).
“These psychologists — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski — were testing the hypothesis that we have developed our cultural worldviews in order to give us the sense that we might defy death. They reasoned that if this were not the case, when faced with reminders of mortality, people would cling more fiercely to their beliefs and be more negative about those who threatened them. This is just what happened with the judges: when reminded that they would one day die, they were more severe in punishing those who violated their worldview.
“Social psychologists have since tested this hypothesis in more than 400 experiments that aim to explore different aspects of our worldview, from patriotism to religion. So far, their results consistently support a thesis — known as Terror Management Theory — that particular aspects of our outlook are governed by our need to manage our fear of death. In other words, our cultural, philosophical and religious systems exist to promise us immortality.”
The judge experiment is fascinating, because I think I’d have had the opposite intuition: in the face of death, what’s a little prostitution? Since we’re all going to die, why not go easy on that poor person in the dock? That kind of thing.
I’d be really interesting to know how these results break down depending on whether the person in question believes in an afterlife. One might imagine that being reminded of your mortality might have very different – and perhaps opposite – effects depending on whether you believe that there’s anything beyond this life.
Does Remembering Our Mortality Make Us Mean?
by Matt B. on August 28, 2011
This from the New York Times:
“In a study that began in 1989, a group of American social psychologists found that just briefly reminding people that they would die had a remarkable impact on their political and religious views.
“In their first experiment, the researchers recruited court judges from Tucson. Half the judges were reminded of their mortality (via an otherwise innocuous personality test) and half were not. They were then all asked to rule on a hypothetical case of prostitution similar to those they ruled on. The judges who had first been reminded of their mortality set a bond nine times higher than those who hadn’t (averaging $455 compared to $50).
“These psychologists — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski — were testing the hypothesis that we have developed our cultural worldviews in order to give us the sense that we might defy death. They reasoned that if this were not the case, when faced with reminders of mortality, people would cling more fiercely to their beliefs and be more negative about those who threatened them. This is just what happened with the judges: when reminded that they would one day die, they were more severe in punishing those who violated their worldview.
“Social psychologists have since tested this hypothesis in more than 400 experiments that aim to explore different aspects of our worldview, from patriotism to religion. So far, their results consistently support a thesis — known as Terror Management Theory — that particular aspects of our outlook are governed by our need to manage our fear of death. In other words, our cultural, philosophical and religious systems exist to promise us immortality.”
The judge experiment is fascinating, because I think I’d have had the opposite intuition: in the face of death, what’s a little prostitution? Since we’re all going to die, why not go easy on that poor person in the dock? That kind of thing.
I’d be really interesting to know how these results break down depending on whether the person in question believes in an afterlife. One might imagine that being reminded of your mortality might have very different – and perhaps opposite – effects depending on whether you believe that there’s anything beyond this life.