Document Type
Honors
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Objective: This study investigated the social support for the Black, Blue, and All Lives Matter movements from the perspective of terror management theory (Greenberg et.al., 1986; TMT). Method: Participants completed a set of questionnaires about death, pain, self-esteem, self-consciousness, justice sensitivity and their opinions towards social issues currently happening in the nation. The order of questionnaire differed, as to prime participants with death (the experimental condition) or pain (the control condition) as their first questionnaire. Results: There was support for the Black Lives Matter movement regardless of priming condition. Additionally, post-hoc analysis revealed a negative correlation between participant’s death anxiety score and their self-esteem, as well as a negative correlation between the death anxiety score and the blue lives matter movement. Lastly, there was a positive correlation between death anxiety and justice sensitivity. Conclusion: These findings suggest that mortality salience had no influence on people’s opinions toward these movements; rather, the death scale served as a chronic prime.
Recommended Citation
Quiroz Santos, Esther, "Investigating the Social Support for Three Social-Political Movements: A Terror Management Theory Perspective" (2018). Honors Projects. 140.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/honors_projects/140
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