Влияние напоминания о смерти на отношение к другим странам: роль правого авторитаризма

Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2020. Т. 17. № 3. С. 520–536.

Prusova I., Gulevich O.

In line with the Terror Management Theory, recognition of the inevitability of death induces
the paralyzing fear. To reduce this fear, people use psychological defences. They demonstrate
more positive attitudes towards those who are similar to them, and more negative towards those
who are different. Mortality salience influences on attitudes towards individuals and social
groups. The goal of the study was to analyse the effect of mortality salience on attitudes towards
“hostile-oriented” and “friendly-oriented” outgroups. To examine the effect of mortality salience,
we conducted the experimental research. Students from two Russian universities (N = 80) participated
in the study. Participants completed the online questionnaires to indicate the level of
RWA and perceived threat from other countries. A week later, they arrived at the laboratory to
take part in a two-factor experiment: 2 (mortality salience)  2 (type of country). They watched
videotapes with reminders of death or without it and, thereafter, demonstrated the level of sympathy,
trust, and readiness to interact with inhabitants of the country. The results showed that
mortality salience negatively influenced on attitudes towards “hostile-oriented” than towards
“friendly-oriented” country. This difference was moderated by RWA. After reminders of death,
people with low RWA demonstrated the same positions towards “friendly” and “hostile-oriented”
countries. At the same time, people with high RWA showed more positive attitudes towards
inhabitants of “friendly-oriented” country, whereas more negative towards people from “hostileoriented”
country.

Keywords: right-wing authoritarianism, правый авторитаризм, mortality salience, страх смерти