Terror management theory and racist attributions : mortality saliency and bias level among black Americans
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Erica C. Noles (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
- Advisor
- James Johnson
Abstract: The current study was undertaken to elucidate the findings related to the terror management
theory (TMT) and racial bias. According the tenets of TMT, reminders of one’s own mortality
will cause an increased need to validate one’s worldview. This hypothesis was tested by
assessing Blacks’ expectations of White racism in ambiguous scenarios. Among those who are
highly biased against Whites, it can be assumed that expectations of White racism are inherent to
their worldview. We predicted that high bias individuals would have a greater need to see an
ambiguous situation as racist after the mortality salience manipulation as a means to defend their
worldview. As predicted, high bias individuals rated the ambiguous scenarios as more likely to
be caused by racism than did low bias individuals. A main effect for mortality salience showed
that those who were asked to consider their own death rated the scenarios as more racist than did
the control group. Most importantly, a significant interaction between mortality salience and bias
level provided evidence that racist attributions can be predicted by the TMT. This study was the
first TMT investigation into the effects of mortality saliency on Blacks and the first to examine
the level of racial bias as an independent variable.
Terror management theory and racist attributions : mortality saliency and bias level among black Americans
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Created on 1/1/2009
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- Stereotypes (Social psychology), Self-presentation
- Subjects
- Stereotypes (Social psychology)
- Self-presentation