The Influence of Existential Threat and Tolerance Salience on Anti‐Islamic Attitudes in American Politics
Abstract
Fierce public discussion has centered on anti‐Islamic attitudes and tolerance in America and the West more broadly. The present research explored whether the awareness of mortality (a common theme in politics, e.g., war/terrorism, health care, abortion, and so on) and tolerance salience might influence (1) the endorsement of anti‐Islamic attitudes in American politics and (2) political orientation. Study 1 (n = 79) was conducted in lab and Study 2 (preregistered, n = 396) replicated it online; both obtained the same results. In a neutral‐value‐prime condition, American participants reminded of mortality (vs. control topic) more strongly endorsed a Congressman’s anti‐Islamic statements about Rep. Ellison. However, in a tolerance‐value‐prime condition, participants reminded of mortality maintained their acceptance of Rep. Ellison’s beliefs and practices. Political orientation was not impacted. Implications for terror management theory (TMT), other theories of existential dynamics and motivated conservative political ideology, and both recent and contemporary American politics are discussed.
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Of the 6 relevant pre-registered high-powered replication studies of the mortality salience hypothesis, 3 successfully replicated the original study and 3 did not.
“Of the 6 relevant studies that we found, 3 of them successfully replicated the original study (Dunn et al., 2020; Schindler et al., 2019; Vail et al., 2019), whereas 3 of them did not (Rodríguez-Ferreiro et al., 2019; Sætrevik & Sjåstad, 2019; Schindler et al., 2021).”
From Managing the terror of publication bias: A comprehensive p-curve analysis of the Terror Management Theory literature (2023) · cites this paper as Vail et al., 2019
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Background
- Authors
- Vail, K. E., Courtney, E., & Arndt, J.
- Affiliations
- Cleveland State University (US)
- University of Missouri (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vail, Kenneth E.
- Venue
- Political Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-03-05
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1143-1162
- ISSN
- 0162-895X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9221
- OpenAlex
- W2921507010
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6
- FWCI
- 5.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Political Psychology (publishedVersion)
- EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University (Cleveland State University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Keywords
- existential risk, mortality salience, terror management theory, political ideology, political orientation, American politics, Muslim politicians
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