Abstract
This chapter presents a detailed discussion of the results of two experiments using real cases to evoke death thoughts and worldview defence. The first experiment examines the reactions to the exposure to news excerpts relating to flight MH17, which was shot down by a missile over eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Melbourne. The second experiment looks at the reactions to the thought of the April 2013 Boston marathon bombing. The results show that the salience of the two incidents evokes death thoughts and decreases the study participants’ support for a peer advocating domain-relevant political violence.
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Notes
- 1.
The country appearing in the statement was the one chosen by the respondents when, at the beginning of the questionnaire, they were asked to provide their country of birth. For example, if the respondent was born in Australia, he or she visualized the sentence as “We have to defend the people born in Australia from the arrogance of other races and religions that threaten us.”
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Vergani, M. (2018). Terrorism as a Reminder of Mortality. In: How Is Terrorism Changing Us?. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8066-1_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8066-1_6
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