TY - JOUR
T1 - Whistling in the Dark
T2 - Exaggerated Consensus Estimates in Response to Incidental Reminders of Mortality
AU - Pyszczynski, Tom
AU - Wicklund, Robert A.
AU - Floresku, Stefan
AU - Koch, Holgar
AU - Gauch, Gerardine
AU - Solomon, Sheldon
AU - Greenberg, Jeff
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was sponsored by grants from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8910876 and SBR-9312546) in the United States
PY - 1996/11
Y1 - 1996/11
N2 - Terror management theory posits that cultural worldviews function to provide protection against anxiety concerning human vulnerability and mortality and that their effectiveness as buffers against such anxiety is maintained through a process of consensual validation. Two field experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that incidental reminders of one's mortality increase the need to believe that others share one's worldview. In both studies, passersby on city streets were asked to estimate the extent of social consensus for culturally relevant attitudes, 100 m before passing a funeral home, 100 m after passing a funeral home, or directly in front of a funeral home. In the first study, conducted in Germany, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Germans who shared their opinions about a proposal to change the German constitution to restrict the immigration of foreigners; in the second study, conducted in the United States, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Americans who shared their opinions about the teaching of Christian values in the public schools. In both studies, subjects who held the minority position on the issue estimated greater consensus for their opinions when interviewed directly in front of a funeral home than when interviewed either before or after passing it.
AB - Terror management theory posits that cultural worldviews function to provide protection against anxiety concerning human vulnerability and mortality and that their effectiveness as buffers against such anxiety is maintained through a process of consensual validation. Two field experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that incidental reminders of one's mortality increase the need to believe that others share one's worldview. In both studies, passersby on city streets were asked to estimate the extent of social consensus for culturally relevant attitudes, 100 m before passing a funeral home, 100 m after passing a funeral home, or directly in front of a funeral home. In the first study, conducted in Germany, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Germans who shared their opinions about a proposal to change the German constitution to restrict the immigration of foreigners; in the second study, conducted in the United States, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Americans who shared their opinions about the teaching of Christian values in the public schools. In both studies, subjects who held the minority position on the issue estimated greater consensus for their opinions when interviewed directly in front of a funeral home than when interviewed either before or after passing it.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00384.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00384.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:1542576125
VL - 7
SP - 332
EP - 336
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
SN - 0956-7976
IS - 6
ER -