Perceived collective continuity and ingroup identification as defence against death awareness

TY - JOUR

T1 - Perceived collective continuity and ingroup identification as defence against death awareness

AU - Sani, Fabio

AU - Herrera, Marina

AU - Bowe, M.

PY - 2009/1

Y1 - 2009/1

N2 - Perhaps unique among the animal species, humans are aware that they will ultimately die. Terror management theory (TMT) posits that investing in a social group helps people to manage paralysing anxiety stemming from death awareness. In line with this proposition, research to date has shown that when reminded of their own mortality, people increase their identification with a relevant group and defend its beliefs, values, and practices. In the reported study, we demonstrate that a mortality salience induction enhances people's perceptions of group temporal endurance-or perceived collective continuity (PCC), as we define it. Enhanced PCC leads, in turn, to enhanced group identification. This is in line with the TMT assumption that death awareness leads people to invest in a social group because this constitutes a temporally enduring meaning-system that imbues life with meaning, order, and permanence, and promises death transcendence to those who meet the prescribed standards of value. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

AB - Perhaps unique among the animal species, humans are aware that they will ultimately die. Terror management theory (TMT) posits that investing in a social group helps people to manage paralysing anxiety stemming from death awareness. In line with this proposition, research to date has shown that when reminded of their own mortality, people increase their identification with a relevant group and defend its beliefs, values, and practices. In the reported study, we demonstrate that a mortality salience induction enhances people's perceptions of group temporal endurance-or perceived collective continuity (PCC), as we define it. Enhanced PCC leads, in turn, to enhanced group identification. This is in line with the TMT assumption that death awareness leads people to invest in a social group because this constitutes a temporally enduring meaning-system that imbues life with meaning, order, and permanence, and promises death transcendence to those who meet the prescribed standards of value. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.019

DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.019

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-1031

VL - 45

SP - 242

EP - 245

JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

IS - 1

ER -