Self-sacrifice as self-defense: mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self
Self-sacrifice as self-defense: mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self
The increasing occurrence of suicide bombing attacks highlights a question that has received little direct empirical attention in social psychology. Why are people willing to sacrifice their lives to advance an ideological agenda? The current research suggests that willingness to self-sacrifice reflects efforts to manage death awareness by investing in a symbolic identity that provides some form of immortality. If willingness to self-sacrifice is a response to death awareness then increasing the salience of death thoughts should lead to an increase in willingness to self-sacrifice for a death-transcending symbolic identity (e.g. one's nation). Further, if self-sacrifice after mortality salience (MS) is a striving for symbolic immortality then having participants imagine an alternative way to transcend death should moderate this effect. Support for these hypotheses was found as MS increased willingness of British participants to self-sacrifice for England, but only when an alternative route to symbolic immortality was not provided. Implications are briefly discussed.
531-534
Routledge, Clay
c1e0088a-3cc4-4d54-bbd3-de7d286429d8
Arndt, Jamie
9f74041c-58f9-43b5-96f1-19dda49b7d87
2007
Routledge, Clay
c1e0088a-3cc4-4d54-bbd3-de7d286429d8
Arndt, Jamie
9f74041c-58f9-43b5-96f1-19dda49b7d87
Routledge, Clay and Arndt, Jamie
(2007)
Self-sacrifice as self-defense: mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 38 (3), .
(doi:10.1002/ejsp.442).
Abstract
The increasing occurrence of suicide bombing attacks highlights a question that has received little direct empirical attention in social psychology. Why are people willing to sacrifice their lives to advance an ideological agenda? The current research suggests that willingness to self-sacrifice reflects efforts to manage death awareness by investing in a symbolic identity that provides some form of immortality. If willingness to self-sacrifice is a response to death awareness then increasing the salience of death thoughts should lead to an increase in willingness to self-sacrifice for a death-transcending symbolic identity (e.g. one's nation). Further, if self-sacrifice after mortality salience (MS) is a striving for symbolic immortality then having participants imagine an alternative way to transcend death should moderate this effect. Support for these hypotheses was found as MS increased willingness of British participants to self-sacrifice for England, but only when an alternative route to symbolic immortality was not provided. Implications are briefly discussed.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 2007
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 44999
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/44999
ISSN: 0046-2772
PURE UUID: c7d88e07-d3b8-4b93-ae0e-e9f3be08292c
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 29 Jul 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:08
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Clay Routledge
Author:
Jamie Arndt
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics