Prejudice toward outgroups as a Strategy to Deal with Mortality Threat: Simple Reaction with a Complex Foundation

Maj, Marta; Kossowska, Małgorzata

doi:10.12775/ths.2015.002

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…A series of studies have demonstrated that threats to the self either via reminder of mortality (Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010;Maj & Kossowska, 2015) or through negative feedback about oneself (Allen & Sherman, 2011;Fein & Spencer, 1997;Spencer, Fein, Wolfe, Fong, & Duinn, 1998) can lead participants to increase their reliance on negative stereotypes about others. Allen and Sherman demonstrated that this effect was due to a greater focus on the negative attributes of out-groups, suggesting that Soc Just Res (2017) 30:323-354 331 these effects do represent a means of self-protection through the devaluation of nonself groups.…”

Section: Prejudice and The Conceptual Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting Ourselves in Another’s Skin: Using the Plasticity of Self-Perception to Enhance Empathy and Decrease Prejudice

Farmer

Maister

2017

Soc Just Res

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The self is one the most important concepts in social cognition and plays a crucial role in determining questions such as which social groups we view ourselves as belonging to and how we relate to others. In the past decade, the self has also become an important topic within cognitive neuroscience with an explosion in the number of studies seeking to understand how different aspects of the self are represented within the brain. In this paper, we first outline the recent research on the neurocognitive basis of the self and highlight a key distinction between two forms of self-representation. The first is the ''bodily'' self, which is thought to be the basis of subjective experience and is grounded in the processing of sensorimotor signals. The second is the ''conceptual'' self, which develops through our interactions of other and is formed of a rich network of associative and semantic information. We then investigate how both the bodily and conceptual self are related to social cognition with an emphasis on how self-representations are involved in the processing and creation of prejudice. We then highlight new research demonstrating that the bodily and conceptual self are both malleable and that this malleability can be harnessed in order to achieve a reduction in social prejudice. In particular, we will outline strong evidence that modulating people's perceptions of the bodily self can lead to changes in attitudes at the conceptual level. We will highlight a series of studies demonstrating that social attitudes towards various social out-groups (e.g. racial groups) can lead to a reduction in prejudice towards that group. Finally, we seek to place these findings in a broader social context by considering how innovations in virtual reality technology can allow experiences of taking on another's identity are likely to become both more commonplace and more convincing in the future and the various opportunities and risks associated with using such technology to reduce prejudice.

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Section: Prejudice and The Conceptual Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting Ourselves in Another’s Skin: Using the Plasticity of Self-Perception to Enhance Empathy and Decrease Prejudice

Farmer

Maister

2017

Soc Just Res

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“…Both -queer theory and social psychology's terror management theory (Greenberg et al, 1986) -assume death attitudes to precede gender stereotypes. If death attitudes precede gender stereotypes and other kinds of social prejudice (Maj and Kossowska, 2016;Wong, 2008), then they promise for a more radical , intersectional approach to psychosocial intervention. However, Butler (1990Butler ( , 1997 explains the development of gender stereotypes with outdated Freudian psychoanalysis.…”

Section: Objectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wong (2008) explains that negative death valence precedes death denial and positive death valence precedes death acceptance. If death acceptance reduces social prejudice (Maj and Kossowska, 2016;Wong, 2008), for example based on gender, then it could serve as a framework for a more radical and a possibly more intersectional approach to psychosocial intervention. So far, terror management research on gender stereotypes did not account for death acceptance, nor did it differentiate between sex and gender.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Queer Terror Management: The Effect of Death Attitudes on Gender Stereotypes

Stiller

Masso

2023

icgr

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The present research aims to facilitate radical, intersectional psychosocial intervention in gender stereotypes. Queer terror management theory provides a theoretical framework for an effect of death attitudes on stereotypes about sex, gender and desire. An initial version of the theory assumed that death acceptance would inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes, depending on the moderating role of mortality salience. A quasi-experiment with Implicit Association Tests and explicit surveys was run to put the theory to an initial test. Results showed that a more positive death valence in wave 1 - not death acceptance or mortality salience - was associated with less implicit sexual identification, gender prejudice and homonegativity. Explicit results were not conclusive. Future research shall replicate the quasi-experiment and broaden its scope to further kinds of social prejudice.

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The Constitution of Death Valence as a Key to Intervene in Social Discrimination

Stiller

2023

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

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According to terror and meaning management theories, positive death valence might facilitate psychosocial intervention in social discrimination. The present theoretical article investigates the constitution of death valence with the objective to indicate key factors for a more radical, intersectional intervention in social discrimination. Basing on foundational works and recent research, I conclude that the automatic expectation of death need fulfillment constitutes death valence. Five death needs are detected: agency, belonging, dignity, hope, and meaning. I then outline how the expectation of death need fulfillment may depend on death culture, with a special focus on the United States. Emotional death proximity is a necessary first step to perceive death needs and to contrast them with the cultural possibilities to fulfill them. Thus, psychosocial intervention in social discrimination may be improved by incorporating the key factors of positive death valence: emotional death proximity, death needs, and death culture.

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Prejudice toward outgroups as a Strategy to Deal with Mortality Threat: Simple Reaction with a Complex Foundation

Cited by 4 publications

References 33 publications

Putting Ourselves in Another’s Skin: Using the Plasticity of Self-Perception to Enhance Empathy and Decrease Prejudice

Putting Ourselves in Another’s Skin: Using the Plasticity of Self-Perception to Enhance Empathy and Decrease Prejudice

Queer Terror Management: The Effect of Death Attitudes on Gender Stereotypes

The Constitution of Death Valence as a Key to Intervene in Social Discrimination

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